Navy Veterans Death Sentence Commuted, Nikhil Gupta Plea Dismissed

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officially announced on 4 Jan that Qatar has commuted the death sentence for eight Indian Navy veterans and turned it into ‘varying quantum’ of jail terms. The veterans were arrested by Qatar in Aug 2022 (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 7, Story 8). Addressing the weekly press briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the legal team had been given 60 days to appeal against the jail terms. The Indian embassy has now gotten consular access to the men in custody. Also on 4 Jan, the Supreme Court rejected a plea for consular access moved by a family member of Indian national Nikhil Gupta, who is in a Czech prison following charges by the US relating to a foiled assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 13, Story 2). The bench of Justices, Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, told advocate CA Sundaram their court should respect the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the foreign court and law of that land and, therefore, it could not go into the merit of the matter. Meanwhile, on 1 Jan, in a gazetted notification, the Indian government declared gangster Satinderjit Singh, alias Goldy Brar, a terrorist under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The notification said Brar is associated with the banned 'Khalistani' organization Babbar Khalsa International. Brar came on the radar of Indian investigative agencies after he took responsibility for the murder of Panjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in May 2022. Brar is originally from Muktsar and is the son of a former Panjab police personnel.