Eight Indian nationals have been sentenced to death in Qatar reportedly on the charges of espionage. While this is the most high-profile case in recent years, it's not the first. Here are five such cases.
The India-Qatar relations are on a shaky wicket after eight Indian nationals have been sentenced to death in the West Asian autocracy. While neither the Qatari regime nor the Government of India have made public the charges, it is understood that they have been convicted on espionage charge.
New Delhi now hopes that King of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani may pardon the Indians at some point. The King of Qatar, just like other monarchs in the region, is known to grant clemency on Islamic festivals like Eid or during the fasting days of the holy month of Ramzan.
The Print reported that the eight men were arrested and convicted for allegedly leaking design data on stealth submarines and an Indian diplomat was quietly asked to leave the kingdom for his ties with these eight men.
The development is set to test the Indian relationship with Qatar, an energy powerhouse and a strong powerbroker in the region that's the interlocutor of the superpowers with the Taliban, Iran, and Hamas. The Palestinian group Hamas, a widely designated terrorist group, has long been supported by Qatar, which is now playing a key role in the diplomatic parleys related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.
While this is the first such incident in the recent years, it is not the first time that Indians have been held abroad on espionage charges. From Kulbhushan Jadhav to Ravindra Kaushik, here are five instances when Indians were held in foreign countries for allegedly being spies.
Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian national in Pakistan captivity on the death row. His captivity was announced by Pakistan in 2016. Incidentally, Jadhav is also a former Indian Navy officer. He was captured by the Pakistanis along the border with Iran, where he said he was doing business. He was convicted of espionage charges and was sentenced to death. Jadhav and the Government of India have denied the Pakistani charges of espionage.
Pakistan has maintained that Jadhav is an operative of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, and media reports from the country said he was also accused of fomenting sectarian violence in Karachi, disrupting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and trigger trouble in the restive Balochistan province which already has an active insurgency.
In response, the Indian government sources were quoted as saying in media reports that Jadhav is a retired Indian Navy officer who was running maritime business and was living in Iran. There, said the sources, he was abducted by Pakistani agents and was brought to Pakistan where he was presented as a spy.
In their book 'Spy Stories', Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark write that Jadhav was caught up in the larger spy war between India and Pakistan. A source quoted by them said that he was, if he was connected with India at all, an asset trying to be an officer and was a small fry — if at all he was connected to India. Compared to an officer who is a formal member of state's services, an agent is like a self-employed informer who acts under an officer.
Amid all these reports, New Delhi continues to maintain that Jadhav has been falsely implicated in Pakistan. In June, Minister of External Affairs described his situation along with those of the Indian Navy veterans in Qatar as "exceptionally" and said diplomacy could not be ruled out in these cases.
Sarabjit Singh was an Indian national who died in a Pakistan jail of assault while he was on the death row. Singh was arrested in 1991 and was sentenced to death for a bomb blast that killed 14 people.
Reuters reported that Singh's family claimed that he had crossed over into Pakistan in a drunken state and was innocent.
In 2012, after a number of petitions and requests from India, the then-President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari had commuted Singh's death sentence to a life sentence. A year later, however, he was assaulted in prison by fellow inmates. He died from his injuries.
While the Indian government maintained that Singh was innocent, Hindustan Times reported after his death that he was indeed an Indian spy and worked for the external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
"Sarabjit was an Indian spy in Pakistan. He managed to accomplish the task given to him but was caught while trying to flee," said an intelligence source to HT, who refused to elaborate more on the operation he purportedly was part of.
The source further told HT, "Some of the operations executed by the RAW during the period were totally mindless. Spies like Sarabjit and their family have paid huge cost for it. Sometimes, the agency officials executed operations out of personal bravado that they can get 'something' done in Pakistan."
The story of Ravindra Kaushik is one of the most hair-raising in the annals of espionage. Kaushik was born in 1952 and was sent across the border to Pakistan as a spy in 1975 after training for around two years in tradecraft, Islamic teachings, and the Urdu language. He also underwent circumcision.
In the spy lore, Kaushik has been immortalised as 'The Black Tiger', the man who led an outrageous life and died an unsung hero when his life as a spy came to an end — as it often does for spies.
A Hindu man from Rajasthan, Kaushik took the identity of a Muslim man from Islamabad and served in the Pakistan Army for years, from where he provided India confidential information that, in the words of veteran national security journalist Praveen Swami, proved to be a "goldmine" of information.
"From his position in Pakistan’s military accounts service, Kaushik was able to report on the movements of military units, the postings of key officers and even the movements of trains with war material. Like other agents in Pakistan, one senior R&AW officer recalls, Kaushik relied on the postal system to send back intelligence—recording his information long-hand in invisible ink and then mailing the notes to addresses in Kuwait or Dubai," notes Swami in an article for The Print.
Kaushik married a Pakistani woman and also had a child with her.
While it is not clearly known how Kaushik was arrested, a story says that arrest of another spy sent to extract Kaushik to India for a short break in 1983 had led to the arrest. Another story says that the lack of a wider family raised suspicions and led to him being placed under surveillance.
Finally, in 1985, Kaushik was sentenced to death, which was commuted to a life sentence later. He died in prison in 2001 from illness. While media reports, films, and even books have featured Kaushik's story, the Government of India never acknowledged him — as is often the case with spies.
Mohammed Ibrahim Puthan Purayil and Shihani Meera Sahib Jamal Mohammed from Kerala were arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015 and were subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail for espionage.
Families of Purayil and Shihani allege that the two were used by the Embassy of India in UAE to get sensitive information but were left on their own when the UAE authorities came after them.
"Their families alleged that the men were innocent, and that Indian intelligence officers associated with the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi misguided ordinary Indians to procure sensitive information from places such as ports. According to the families, the men were denied the legal and diplomatic support they deserved from their country," reported Article 14.
The report says that Shihani was an assistant operations manager at multinational shipping firm Inchcape Shipping Services, where his duties included providing services to ships, including navy vessels, docking at the Zayed port at UAE's Abu Dhabi. It adds that the company also had a contract with the Indian Navy and, whenever they worked on a ship, they engaged with embassy personnel. This is how he came in touch with some embassy staffers.
Shihani was convicted of handing over details of military vessels’ docking location and duration to "Indian intelligence officers Anirban Mukherjee, Anub Kumar Srivastava and Arun Jain who are working for the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi," reported Article 14. The report cites the family's petition in the Kerala High Court, which says that Shrivastava, Mukherjee, and Jain were Consular Officer, Military Attache, and First Secretary, respectively, at India's UAE mission.
Ibrahim also worked at the Zayed port and the family alleges the Indian government roped him in 2013, according to Article 14.
The report quotes Ibrahim's family as saying that two Indian embassy officers misguided Ibrahim and told him that he should give them names and other details of certain ships coming to the port "for the security of both India and UAE". The report identifies, citing court documents, the two officers as Ajay Kumar and Rudra Nath Juha. The report says that it could not confirm if these names were real or covers.
In both the cases, the families say they did not receive support from the Indian mission in UAE or the Union government. As of October 2023, Shihani was still in jail, according to a report in The Print. The status of Ibrahim could not be ascertained.