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After returning from Qatar, Commander (retired) Amit Nagpal said he would visit any other country across the world but wouldn’t ever go to Qatar. “I won’t even travel in the plane which crosses the skies of Qatar…” Nagpal told Hindustan in an interview on Saturday.
Amit Nagpal was among eight former Indian Navy officers who returned to India from Qatar on February 12. This was nearly three-and-half months after a Qatari court handed them a death sentence that was subsequently commuted to varying jail terms. They reportedly faced charges of espionage, but neither the Qatari authorities nor New Delhi made the charges against them public.
ALSO READ: Decoding India’s reaction to Qatar’s death sentence to 8 Indians
Upon his return to India, Nagpal, who lives in Noida Sector 29 Arun Vihar, said in the interview he was sure that he was innocent and would be released soon. “With this belief, I had spent each day in jail…our return to India was no less than fulfilment of a dream,” he was quoted as saying.
He told Hindustan that he had started working in Qatar’s Dhara Global Company in 2017. He said he was providing training to the navy in Qatar. “Qatar Navy personnel were impressed with him and considered him a guru,” the report said.
ALSO READ: ‘Jaishankar called our wives and said…,’ recalls Ragesh, one of ex-Navy personnel released by Qatar
He further informed that on August 30, 2022, the Qatar Police arrested him on the charges of espionage. “I couldn’t believe what as happening at that time…the family was in shock,” he said. He added that with the efforts of the Indian government, he managed to return to India almost after 528 days on February 12.
Qatar released eight jailed former Indian Navy personnel and seven of them returned home on February 12, in what is seen as a major diplomatic victory for India. The eight nationals were Captains (retired) Navtej Gill and Saurabh Vasisht, Commanders (retired) Purnendu Tiwari, Amit Nagpal, SK Gupta, BK Verma, and Sugunakar Pakala, and sailor Ragesh.
People familiar with the matter earlier told PTI that Commander (retired) Tiwari stayed back in Doha and is likely to come back to India soon.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself constantly supervised all the developments in the case and has never shied away from any initiatives that would ensure the return of the Indians. The seven Indian nationals reached Delhi by a private airline at around 2:35 am.
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Published: 17 Feb 2024, 05:39 PM IST
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