Doha: Qatar has expelled India’s Defense Attaché Captain Mohan Atla for alleged involvement in espionage for Israel. He was running a spying ring, and has been expelled back to New Delhi.
According to the details, eight former Indian Navy officials were detained in Qatar last year on charges of espionage. The detained Indian Navy personnel had been identified as: Cdr Purnendu Tiwari, Capt Navtej Singh, Cdr Birendra Kumar Verma, Capt Saurabh Vashisht, Cdr Sugnakar Pakala, Cdr Amit Nagpal, Cdr Sanjeev Gupta and Sailor Ragesh.
As per information, the detained Navy personnels were agents of Indian R&AW who were working at Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services in Doha.
These spies were working in Qatar with a private firm and were providing training & other services to the Qatari Emiri Navy and have been caught in the month of August 2022 for their involvement in spying, espionage and international terrorism.
Commander (Retired) Purnendu Tiwari (Naval Officer) played a key role in these activities and was actively involved in transferring data of leading Gulf Muslim country to Israel and India.
The retired officer was honoured with ‘Pravasi Samman Award’ (Highest honored Overseas Indian Award) from Indian President Ram Nath Kovind in 2019. While working with Qatar Defense, Security and other Government agencies; the officers had access to classified data and were sharing the sensitive information to Qatar’s adversaries.
India was in a state of denial, just like Kalbushan Yadav and so far has not owned those 8 x officials. The news of arrest was released on Social Media on 25 Oct 2022 by wife of one of the officer in which she requested Indian authorities to get them released.
Reports claimed that the officers were detained by Qatar on charges of spying for Israel, however, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) revealed no information regarding the allegations against these former officials. Indian Embassy in Doha is aware of this embarrassing act of Indian Navy officers but has not commented on the incident till date.
Please visit our website London Institute of Peace Research for latest peace news
