Qatar Accuses Eight Former Indian Navy Personnel Of Spying On Its Secretive Submarine Programme For Israel

The Qatari State Security has claimed that eight Indian Navy officers, detained in Qatar since last 8 months, were passing confidential information about Qatari's submarine program to Israel, reported The Print.

These eight officers were detained on 30 August, last year.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had earlier said that, "India attaches “high priority” to the issue of eight former Indian Navy personnel detained in Qatar since last August and is making efforts for their early return and repatriation."

According to a report, Qatari authorities have started the legal proceedings against these eight officers on 29 March and the next hearing is scheduled for May.

“We’ve tried hard to convince our counterparts in Doha that India and its nationals were not involved in hostile intelligence operations against the emirate,” The Print quoted an intelligence officer as saying.

“But the Qataris are insisting that intelligence on their submarine programme was passed on to Israel,” the officer added.

"The Qatar State Security, the state intelligence agency, claimed to have intercepted electronic communications establishing that the naval officers were spying on the submarine programme. The purported evidence, however, has not been shared with India," the intelligence officer further said.

The Qatari Navy had in 2021 signed a deal with an Italian shipyard Fincantieri SpA for constructing two diesel-electric submarines. It is the transferring of these submarines' confidential data, that the Indian Navy officers are accused of, by the Qatari authorities.

It is noteworthy that these officers were working for Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy services, a Private firm owned by a former Oman Air Force Officer Khamis al-Ajmi, who was also briefly detained but later released.

The Dahra Global Technologies however, has resumed operations.

The officers are kept under solitary confinement, and according to another report, their bail pleas have been rejected eight times by the Qatari authorities.

However, the Indian officials have been granted consular access to the eight officers and their family members have also been allowed to meet them.

Among the eight officers, one former Naval Commander, Purnendu Tiwari was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his services to India.

Along with Tiwari, seven former Indian Navy officers Navtej Singh Gill, Birendra Kumar Verma, Sugunakar Pakala, Sanjeev Gupta, Amit Nagpal, Saurab Vasisht and Ragesh Gopakumar are also under detention.