Businessman Oberoi secures freedom for 11 Punjabi youths facing murder charges in Dubai

₹65 lakh blood money was paid to the families of victims — Ashif Ali of Jalandhar district and Varinderpal Singh of Kapurthala

Twelve Indians and two Pakistanis, who were facing murder charges in Dubai, have been saved by Indian businessman and philanthropist SP Singh Oberoi, who made arrangements for the blood money to secure their release.

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According to Oberoi, 11 of the 14 youths (including two Pakistanis), returned on Monday while three are expected to reach India in the coming days. Five of the 12 Indians are from Gurdaspur, two from SBS Nagar, two from Kapurthala, one each from Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur, and one from Kurukshetra district in Haryana.

According to a press release issued by Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust run by Oberoi, a clash between two groups broke out in Sharjah on December 31, 2015, in which 23-year-old Ashif Ali of Samrai town in Jalandhar district and 25-year-old Varinderpal Singh of Pandoori village of Kapurthala district were killed. Fourteen youths were charged with the double murder and sent to jail in Dubai on January 1, 2016.

Oberoi said the family members of the accused youths had approached him for help. “After finding that some of the youths were the only breadwinners of their families, I approached Nirmal Singh, a relative of victim Varinderpal, and apprised him of the pitiable situation of the family members of the accused,” he said.

On May 21, 2018, Oberoi took Nirmal Singh to the Dubai court and told the judge that the family members of the victims were ready for a “compromise”.

Oberoi said after getting a nod from the court, he handed over around ₹65 lakh blood money to the victims’ families in July 2018 and submitted the relevant papers. “After this, I attended 27 hearings. In total, ₹75 lakh, including the blood money, was spent on the case. A part of the money was paid by the families of the accused youths,” he said.

He also said they had filed the appeal for the youths’ release in February 2020 and the court decided to release them in April this year.

The nine Indian-returnees have been quarantined for 14 days at the Military Hospital in Chennai.