Victim’s family pardons 5 on death row
INDIANS WHO KILLED MAN IN 2011 GROUP FIGHT RETURN HOME AFTER BENEFACTOR HELPS THEM PAY BLOOD MONEY
Indians who killed man in 2011 fight return home after businessman helps them pay blood money
Five Indian men facing the death penalty for the murder of a compatriot in a group fight in 2011, are back home after the victim’s family pardoned them and accepted blood money.
The unmarried youths were reunited with their families — two of them after nine years — after they served about sixand-a-half years in jail.
Dharmendra, Harwinder Singh, Ranjit Ram, Dalwinder Singh and Sucha Singh were sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Virendra Chauhan in a brawl between two groups of bootleggers in Sharjah in November 2011.
Their release became possible after their appeal to be spared death was taken up by Indian hotelier S.P. Singh Oberoi, who is known for helping convicts on death row by paying blood money to the victims’ families.
Speaking to Gulf News from India, Oberoi said he took up the case of the youngsters as he was convinced that it was not an intentional murder and that their families would suffer if they were executed.
He said he wasn’t justifying their action and wanted them also to serve the jail sentence the court would order.
The court reduced their sentence to three-and-a-half years in jail after Oberoi managed to convince Chauhan’s family to pardon them.
“I went to his house with some family members of these boys to seek their pardon by accepting the blood money,” Oberoi said.
A total of Rs2.1 million (Dh116,245) was paid in blood money to Chauhan’s wife and six children, of which Rs1.3 million was raised by the convicts’ families, he added.
“I wanted them to feel guilty for indulging in the fight and work hard to repay their families. So, I gave them only the amount that their families were falling short of.”
Since the convicts had already spent more than the prescribed term in jail, the court released them immediately after they secured the pardon of the victim’s family.
Travel documents
Oberoi said the Indian Consulate in Dubai provided emergency exit papers and flight tickets for three of them as they were not employed with any companies and did not have valid travel documents.
“The other two got flight tickets from the companies where they worked before the case.”
Sucha Singh, who reached his home in a remote village in the state of Punjab last Friday, said it is now a second life for the youths.
“We didn’t know if we would ever see our families again,” said Singh, who reunited with his family after more than nine years.
He had first come to the UAE in 2009 to work with a labour supply company.
“There was no proper salary or regular job for several months and I left the company after two years. I couldn’t visit my family before going to jail as I was staying without a visa.”
However, the family reunion was incomplete for him since his mother had passed away in 2012 while he was in jail.
Bootlegging murders
Oberoi said the number of bootlegging-linked murders in the UAE has come down over the years as severe punishment like the death sentence has become a deterrent.
Starting with the muchpublicised case of 17 Indians on death row in a similar incident in 2010, Oberoi said he has so far helped get 93 prisoners released in the UAE. “That includes 13 Pakistanis, five Bangladeshis and one Filipina woman, who was jailed for causing the death of a woman in a road accident.”
He claimed that he does not support prisoners convicted of intentional murder, drug peddling, rape and other heinous crimes.
I wanted them to feel guilty for indulging in the fight and work hard to repay their families. So, I gave them only the amount that their families were falling short of.”
S.P. Singh Oberoi | Indian hotelier who helped the convicts