Blood money paid for release of 4 youths in UAE

NRIs also hails efforts of NRI Sabha Canada

Chandigarh, December 3
Thanks to provision of blood money, four Punjabi youths facing death sentence in two separate bootlegging-cum-murder cases in the UAE are expected to return home soon.

The victims in both the cases were expatriate workers from India. The kin of the victims - Chinna Ganganna Chepuri from Andhra Pradesh and Rateesh Vijayan from Kerala - have agreed for settlement on payment of blood money and offer pardon to the perpetrators.

Yesterday, when the case of murder of Chinna Ganganna Chepuri came up before the Sharjah Appeal Court, death sentence awarded to Talwinder Singh of Kapurthala and Paramjit Singh of Gurdaspur was waived. The two convicts were, however, ordered to undergo three years’ imprisonment.

In the case of bootlegging and arson that took place on May 26, 2009, expatriate Chinna Ganganna Chepuri was killed. Talwinder Singh and Paramjit Singh were charged for his murder and were subsequently convicted and sentenced to death in the case.

Dubai-based businessman-cum-hotelier SP Singh Oberoi with the help of his friend in the police in Andhra Pradesh traced the next of kin of the victim and convinced them for settlement with the families of the convicts. After paying the blood money from his pocket, SP Singh Oberoi produced the settlement documents before the Sharjah Appeal Court on October 10 this year. The Court, however, fixed November 29 for the final order.

Waiving off the death sentence brought cheers to the families of both Talwinder Singh and Paramjit Singh. And since they have already completed three and a half years in jail, they are set to be released subject to clearance by the security agencies in the UAE.

Hopefully, they would be travelling back to Punjab by the end of first week or early second week of December, says Oberoi.

In the second case, Jaswant Singh of Ludhiana and Harbhajan Singh of Hoshiarpur were convicted for the murder of Ratheesh Vijayan of Kerala on November 30, 2007, in a similar bootlegging-cum-murder case. The Sharjah Appeal Court today accepted the settlement documents produced by SP Singh Oberoi.

At the next hearing, the Appeal Court would pronounce its order of waiving the death sentence.

Since Jaswant Singh and Harbhajan Singh have been in jail for more than four years now, the chances of their release look imminent.

The case files

An earlier case pertains to murder of Chinna Ganganna Chepuri from AP on May 26, 2009

The Sharjah Appeal Court had waived the death sentence awarded to two Punjab youths

In another case, Rateesh Vijayan from Kerala was murdered on November 30, 2007

Jaswant Singh of Ludhiana and Harbhajan Singh of Hoshiarpur were convicted in the case

The court has accepted the settlement documents and orders for their release are expected in the next hearing