Nurse Nimisha Priya’s execution put on hold, Centre tells SC; hearing deferred to August 14

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya—convicted of murdering a Yemeni national—has been stayed.

Attorney General R Venkataramani told a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta that efforts were on to secure her release and safe return to India.

Stating that Priya’s execution has been postponed, senior advocate Regenth Basant, representing petitioner ‘Save Nimisha Priya Action Council’, said they have to first get pardon and then the issue of “blood money” would come.

“First step is that the victim’s family forgives us, then the second stage is blood money. Somebody needs to negotiate with the family. Yemen is a country where not just anybody can go. There is a travel ban. Unless the government relaxes it… Let two-three members of the petitioner and a representative of the Kerala Islamic cleric be permitted to go to Yemen,” Basant submitted.

Thanking the government for the efforts made towards the nurse’s release, Basant said wanted the government to allow Kerala Sunni Islamic leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar to travel to Yemen for negotiations with the victim’s family to persuade them to pardon her in lieu of ‘blood money’.

According to Sharia law, a person can be released if the relatives of the victim agree to accept blood money.

The top court allowed the private organisation making efforts for the release of Priya to approach the Centre for permission to travel to Yemen for negotiations.

“We don’t want something counterproductive happening. We want this woman to come out safely,” Venkataramani told the Bench.

“They (Government) are taking good care of whatever is possible,” the Bench said, posting the matter for further hearing on August 14.

Currently lodged in a jail in Yemeni capital Sana, the 38-year-old Indian nurse from Palakkad in Kerala was scheduled to be executed on July 16. The trial court convicted her of killing Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017 by allegedly injecting him with sedatives to get her passport that the deceased had kept in his possession. The decision was upheld by the country’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023.

The Centre had on July 14 told the Supreme Court that there was nothing much it could do in the matter. However, the Attorney General had said, “We got an informal communication that execution would be put in abeyance but we don’t know if it will work out. Not an area where the Government can be asked to do something beyond a defined limit.”

On behalf of the petitioner, Basant had submitted that the blood money to be paid to the victim’s family has been arranged and that the Government should negotiate with Yemeni authorities for her release on payment of blood money.