10 Indian Convicts Set to Return Home After Receiving Ramadan Pardon in UAE

Ten Indian convicts, whose death sentences were commuted in 2017, would be released three years before the end of their sentence after receiving  Ramadan pardon by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The men will now get to return to their homes in India next week, even though the actual date of their release was in 2020, the Khaleej Times reported.

All the convicts — Satminder Singh, Chander Shekhar, Chamkor Singh, Kalwinder Singh, Balwinder Singh, Dharamivir Singh, Harijinder Singh, Tarsem Singh, Gurupreet Singh and Jagit Singh — hail from Punjab, as per the report. They were on a death row in Al Ain, a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, for murdering a Pakistani national, Mohamed Farahan Mohamed Riyad, in July 2015 over a bootlegging feud.

The Al Ain court finished the procedures for the release of six convicts on May 28, according to Dubai-based Indian hotelier Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi, who helped secure the convicts’ release by paying blood money worth Dh200,000 to the victim’s family last year. The clearance papers of the other four convicts will be completed by next week, the report said.

The Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi is now arranging for temporary passports and tickets for the travel of the 10 men to India, Oberoi, who runs a charitable organization called Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, added.

The men were arrested by the Al Ain Police in October 2016, and received death sentence in December 2016. The case was then referred to the Al Ain Court of Appeal on Dec. 21, 2016, the report said. Oberoi then moved a petition, requesting the court to let him negotiate with the victim’s family by offering them blood money.

A lawyer was assigned the case while Oberoi sent his team to Pakistan to convince the victim’s kin to pardon the convicts, the report added.

In February 2017, Oberoi submitted the copy of the agreement. A member of the victim’s family came to the court in March 2017, stating that the family was ready to forgive the 10 Indians, which was accepted by the court.

In April this year, five Indians, who were imprisoned in Sharjah for the death of a peer in a group fight, returned to India after serving over six years in jail in the UAE after Oberoi’s NGO paid a part of the blood money on their behalf to the victim’s family.

As many as 1,628 Indians are lodged in the United Arab Emirates jails, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said in Lok Sabha in March this year. There are 7,850 Indians in jails abroad.