Death penalty waived, 5 youths return from UAE

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, April 20

Five Indian nationals, including four Punjabis, have returned to India from Sharjah (UAE) after their death sentence was waived in a murder case.

An approval taken from victim’s family after paying blood money was filed in a Sharjah court by the managing trustee of Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, SP Singh Oberoi, in October last year.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone, Oberoi said all of them were sentenced to three years in jail in a booze trade case after waiving their hanging in murder charge. They were in jail for seven years. Oberoi said all of them had been sent to India.

He said on November 4, 2011, in the dispute between some persons involved in illegal liquor trade in Sharjah, 38-year-old Varinder Chauhan of Azamgarh district in UP was killed. Under the murder charge, Dharmender of Bihar’s Chhapra district, Harvinder Singh of Ajnala, Ranjit Ram of Zinasara village (Nawanshahr), Dalwinder Singh of Mahilpur (Hoshiarpur) and Sucha Singh of Jasso Majra (Patiala) were arrested and later convicted.

After Oberoi’s intervention, Rs 20-lakh blood money was given to the victim’s family, which then asked the court to waive the accused’s hanging.

The agreement was done in October, for which Oberoi had visited UP to hand over Rs 20 lakh to Virender’s family.

He said two youths reached Delhi on April 19 by Air Arabia flight and the remaining three on Friday. Oberoi thanked Indian Consul-General Jaspal Singh Ahuja for providing temporary passports and tickets to the youths in less than 24 hours.