Seventeen Indians who were sentenced to death for murdering a Pakistani man in a bootlegging case in Sharjah last year will walk free after an appeal court dropped their punishment on Monday,after over Rs 4 crore was paid as blood money to the victims family. The Sharjah Appeal Court accepted the appeal after the victim Misri Nazir Khans blood relatives dropped their request for capital punishment,the Consulate General of India in Dubai confirmed. It also acknowledged the role of local businessman and Indian Punjabi Society founder president S P Singh Oberoi for his extraordinary selflessness in spearheading the community initiative to resolve this case. After about 18 months and in its seventeenth hearing the case has seen a closure. Today,the Honourable Judge Abdullah al-Shamsi has ruled that the accused be deported after a two-year sentence. Since the 17 have already been imprisoned for over two years now,their release appears imminent. The Consulate is processing their travel documents and will arrange for their air tickets to India. The exact date of release and deportation will also depend on some procedural clearances by the UAE government, the Consulate statement said. Lawyers handling the case said the 17 men,16 from Punjab and one from Haryana,got the lease of life due to an out-of-court blood money settlement amounting to Rs 4.36 crore (3.4 million dirhams). Mohammad Ramzan,a representative of the victims family received the blood money (Diyyah) in court and signed a pardon for the suspects. On March 28,2010 the Sharjah Court of First Instance had pronounced the death sentence on the 17 Indian nationals,who were accused of killing a Pakistani national in January 2009. The Government of India decided to appeal the verdict and defend the accused.
