Govt says ‘closely monitoring’ cases of 3 Indians jailed in Qatar on murder charges

Subramanian Alagappa, Chilladurai Perumal and Shivkumar Achunan were sentenced to death by firing squad in December 2014 after they were found guilty of killing an 81-year-old Qatari woman in her home four years ago.

Indian embassy in Qatar is “closely monitoring” the case of three jailed Indians, two of whom are on death row, external affairs ministry said on Thursday.

The hundreds of thousands of undertrials in India, many of whom are in prison for years because they cannot afford lawyers....await the simple glories of liberty. (Arvind Yadav/ HT) (HT file photo)

Subramanian Alagappa, Chilladurai Perumal and Shivkumar Achunan were sentenced to death by firing squad in December 2014 after they were found guilty of killing an 81-year-old Qatari woman in her home four years ago.

While Achunan’s punishment has been commuted to life sentence, other two are facing death penalty.

Observing that the next hearing was on January 2, 2017, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the Indian embassy in Qatar mission was in touch with the lawyers and was “closely monitoring” the case.

India had filed an appeal maintaining that the penalty was “too harsh”.