Saved from gallows, 10 Punjabi youths all set to return home

PATIALA: Ten Punjabi youths, who had escaped the gallows and were serving a three-year jail term for the murder of a Pakistani national, have been granted pardon by the ruler of Abu Dhabi during the holy month of Ramzan and are all set to return home, two years short of completing their term.

SPS Oberoi, chairman of the Sarbat Da Bhalla Trust, had paid 2,00,000 Dirhams to the victim’s family as ‘blood money’ to save the youths from the death sentence.

Oberoi said that the Al Ain court has completed the procedure to release the six convicts and the clearance papers of the remaining four are expected to be issued next week.

He said that following the completion of procedure, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi would start the process to issue temporary passports to the accused and facilitate their return to India.

The youths, who were granted Ramzan pardons, are Satminder Singh from Barnala, Chander Shekhar from Nawanshahr, Chamkaur Singh from Malerkotla, Kulwinder Singh, Balwinder Kumar and Dharamvir Singh from Ludhiana, Harjinder Singh from Mohali, Tarsem Singh from Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh from Patiala and Jagjit Singh from Gurdaspur.

They had been accused of killing Pakistani national Mohammad Faran during a feud over bootlegging on July 12, 2015. The police had initially detained 25 Punjabi youths in connection with the case and booked 11, of which 10 were convicted by the court.

Following their conviction, Oberoi moved an appeal before the court seeking an opportunity to save their lives by offering ‘blood money’ to the deceased’s family.

The NGO run by Oberoi traced the family of the deceased in Pakistan's Peshawar and offered Diyya-Blood Money amounting to 2 lakh Dirhams (Rs 60 lakh in Pakistani currency) in exchange for a ‘letter of pardon’ as allowed under the Islamic law. The NGO’s delegations had visited the victim’s family in Peshawar four times to convince them to accept the blood money.

The victim’s father, Mohammad Izaz, appeared before the Al Ain court on March 23 last year and handed over the ‘letter of pardon’.

While speaking to TOI, Izaz said that humanity was above all else and added that since he had gone through the pain of losing a son, he did not want the parents of the ten youths to go through the same.

“My son can never return, but I can pardon the lives of these ten youths,” he had said.