Apart from the Gulf countries, a chunk of the Indian prisoners are also lodged in jails in Nepal.
NEW DELHI: At a time when eight former Indian Navy veterans are detained in Qatar’s capital city Doha and their family members pleading to the Indian government to get them released, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 16 December informed the Rajya Sabha that there are more than 600 other Indian prisoners who are languishing in prisons in Qatar. Out of these 600 Indian prisoners in Qatar, 522 of them have been convicted, while 113 are still under trial.
The Ministry of External Affairs also informed the Rajya Sabha that apart from Qatar, there are 8,258 other Indians who are languishing in prisons of different countries. More than half of these over 8,000 Indian prisoners are lodged in jails of the Gulf countries. A total of 4,649 Indians out of the 8,258 Indian prisoners are lodged in the Gulf countries of Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Most of these prisoners are charged with cases like murder, illegal stay, financial fraud, drug trafficking, forgery, cheating, alcohol, sexual offences, robbery, bribery, among such other cases.
Apart from the Gulf countries, a chunk of the Indian prisoners are lodged in jails in Nepal. According to the Ministry of External Affairs’ data, 1,222 Indians are lodged in Nepali jails. However, the ministry does not have any data on the nature of crime for which these Indians have been imprisoned.
Sources said that the large number of Indians in jails in the Gulf countries and those in Nepal is due to the huge Indian population and diaspora residing in the Gulf and Nepal. It also said that the Indian missions in these countries are in touch with the relevant authorities to give consular access to the Indian nationals who are lodged in these jails.
A significant number of these Indian prisoners are also lodged in the jails of European countries, like that of Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and France. The Ministry’s reply to the Upper House also revealed that 261 Indians are lodged in the prisons in the USA, out of which 248 of them are male and 9 females. They have been charged with arson, manslaughter, murder, burglary, sexual assault, violation of immigration laws, mail and wire fraud, among others. The data also reveals that a large number of Indians are lodged in foreign jails due to crimes like drug smuggling, smuggling of goods and trafficking, apart from violation of immigration laws.
The ministry did not provide any data on the number of Indians who are lodged in the Pakistani prisons in this reply document. However, in a separate reply to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year, the Ministry of External Affairs said that 682 Indian prisoners are languishing in Pakistani jails, out of 633 are fishermen caught by Pakistani officials when by mistake these fishermen ventured into the Pakistani waters, while 49 others are Indian civilians. The Ministry also said that out of these, a total of 17 Indians are lodged in Pakistani prisons for more than 10 years.