Dubai: Five Indians convicted of murdering a fellow Indian have escaped the gallows in Sharjah after the non-profit Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust paid blood money to the victim’s family and secured their pardon.
Trust founder and Dubai-based businessman S.P. Singh Oberoi told XPRESS, “On October 23, the Sharjah Court waived off the death penalty awarded to the five Indians and sentenced them to three years imprisonment after we paid blood money to the family of the victim Virender Chauhan in 2011.”
He said Chauhan, a 38-year-old from Shekapuria village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh in India, was killed in a bootlegging brawl on November 4, 2011 in Sharjah. The accused included Sucha Singh, Ravinder Singh, Ranjit Ram, Dalwinder Singh, all from Punjab and Dharmendra from Bihar. He said the five were in jail after the Sharjah court found them guilty of the murder and put them on death row.
Oberoi, who has paid blood money and helped 88 others in similar situations, said, “The five boys’ families contacted me and appealed for help to pay blood money to the victim’s family. I met the victim’s family in their native village and secured a pardon letter from them after paying the blood money. I presented the letter to the Sharjah Court on September 27.” He said the five boys had already spent six years in jail and efforts will now be made to fly them to India subject to approvals.
