Navy Veteran Freed By Qatar
It’s learnt that Nationwide Safety Adviser Ajit Doval performed a task within the negotiations.
Thiruvananthapuram:
Ragesh Gopakumar, one of many eight Indian Navy veterans launched by the Qatar authorities, expressed pleasure and gratitude over returning residence and being reunited together with his household after spending months in captivity within the tiny gulf nation.
“We’re simply glad to be alive… glad to be residence,” a relieved Gopakumar mentioned, including that he and his colleagues survived solely due to their Defence coaching.
He was freed together with seven different former Navy personnel by Qatar two days in the past after their dying sentences had been commuted to jail phrases of various period.
Gopakumar arrived in Balaramapuram, a suburb positioned over 16 km away from Kerala’s capital metropolis, on Monday and tearfully hugged his relations.
Chatting with PTI, the ex-Navy man mentioned, “Jail and confinement is one thing horrible.” Every time somebody enquired what the plight of his household had been when he was in jail, he would ask them to think about a state of affairs the place a husband who used to talk to his spouse not less than 5 instances a day abruptly stopped calling her.
The previous Navy veteran attributed his launch to his household’s prayers and the efforts of the Union authorities.
Lavishing praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he mentioned it was solely due to his intervention that their launch was made doable.
Gopakumar mentioned all of them had been hopeful that they’d step out of the jail “if Modiji intervened” however had no thought how lengthy it could take.
He additionally expressed gratitude to the central authorities for having made preparations to carry the households of the jailed ex-Naval officers to Qatar.
“If an Indian is in hassle overseas and is harmless… if our PM is satisfied about it, he’ll come to their rescue even when it is only one particular person… each Indian ought to know this,” he mentioned.
Recalling his days in jail, Gopakumar mentioned he and his colleagues survived solely due to the coaching they underwent as Defence forces.
Gopakumar mentioned he had retired from the Indian Navy in 2017 and later joined the Oman Defence coaching firm as a communications teacher.
The eight Indian Navy personnel confronted expenses of espionage however neither the Qatari authorities nor New Delhi had made the allegations levelled towards them public.
On October 26, they had been sentenced to dying by Qatar’s Courtroom of First Occasion.
On December 28, the Courtroom of Enchantment within the Gulf nation commuted the capital punishment and sentenced them to jail phrases for durations starting from three years to 25 years.
The Courtroom of Enchantment had given 60 days to enchantment towards the jail phrases.
In December final yr, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit in Dubai and mentioned the well-being of Indians in Qatar.
It’s learnt that Nationwide Safety Adviser Ajit Doval performed a task within the negotiations with the Qatari authorities in securing the discharge of the Indians.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
