UAE COURT COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY OF FIVE IN MURDER CASE

October 24, 2017:

A Sharjah (UAE) court has commuted the death sentence of five Indians, including four Punjabis, to three-year imprisonment in a murder case. In a video message sent from Dubai, SP Singh Oberoi, managing trustee of Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, said all of them would be released soon as they had already been in jail for six years.
Varinder Chauhan of Azamgarh district (Uttar Pradesh) was killed in a clash between groups involved in the illicit liquor trade in Sharjah on November 4, 2011.
Dharmendra of Chhapra district (Bihar), Ravinder Singh of Ajnala (Amritsar), Ranjit Ram of Zeensra village (Nawanshahr), Dalwinder Singh of Mahilpur (Hoshiarpur) and Sucha Singh of Jasso Majra village (Patiala) were convicted of murder.
The parents of the accused contacted Oberoi, who got in touch with Chauhan’s family in UP.
After the payment of Rs20 lakh as blood money, the family gave its consent for pardoning the accused. The agreement was made last month. Oberoi said the youths would be brought back to India once they got police clearance. “We will approach the Indian Consulate to arrange their air tickets. In case it can’t help, the Trust will bear the expenses of their return,” he added. He has saved 88 persons so far by paying blood money.