Indian envoy meets 8 navy veterans on death row in Qatar jail

News Network

December 7, 2023

New Delhi, Dec 7: India's envoy to Qatar met eight ex-Navy personnel - sentenced to death in October for reasons still not known - on Sunday, the government said this afternoon.

External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "Our Ambassador got consular access to meet all eight in prison on December 3."

On India's appeal against the death sentence, Mr Bagchi said, "There have been two hearings so far (these were held on November 23 and November 30). We are closely following the matter and extending all legal and consular assistance. This is a sensitive issue, but we will do whatever we can."

The next hearing is expected soon, it is said.

The Ambassador's meeting with the sailors has been seen as a positive step - one that addresses concerns over consular access to the eight naval personnel, which seems now to have improved.

Also seen as a positive step is that there have been two hearings since India filed its appeal.

News of the meeting with the eight sailors - arrested in August last year by that country's intelligence agency, allegedly for spying - is being linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the Qatar ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on the side-lines of CoP28 summit in Dubai.

"You would have seen (that) Prime Minister Modi meet Sheikh Tamim nin Hamad, the Emir of Qatar in Dubai on the side-lines of (the) CoP28 (summit). They had a good conversation on the overall bilateral relationship as well as the well-being of the Indian community..." Mr Bagchi said.

The specifics of the PM's brief meeting with the Emir have not been made public, but it does appear the Prime Minister has now taken up this matter with the Qatari ruler directly.

On November 24 a Qatari court had accepted India's formal appeal against the death sentence, which the government said had left it "deeply shocked".

The arrested naval personnel are Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht and Sailor Ragesh Gopakumar.

The eight ex-Navy officers include decorated individuals who once commanded major Indian warships, and were working for Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services when arrested.

Dahra is a private firm providing training and related services to Qatar's armed forces.

Sources said some of the sailors were working on a sensitive project - stealth submarines based on Italian technology. Media reports have claimed they have been accused of spying for Israel.

Families of the eight flatly denied the spying allegations.

They were "not engaged in espionage for Israel", the families said. "They went to build the Qatari Navy and build that nation's security. They could never spy. There are no proof of allegations..."

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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