Man offers to sponsor UAE visit of convicts’ kin

chief

Prime VIP
Dubai, July 17

Dubai-based Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi has offered to host two blood relatives each of the 32 Indian convicts on death row in Sharjah Jail. The businessman has offered to arrange return air tickets, free board and lodging in Dubai for three days, visas and a possible meeting of immediate family members — father, mother, brother, sister, wife, son or daughter — with the convicts.

He says that families could contact him with details of passports and two copies of the latest photograph of each of their relatives in jail. “I regularly meet all Indian boys in Sharjah Jail. I also had a chance to visit their families in Punjab and Haryana. I can understand the agony and pain of both the boys and their families. Keeping in view their plight, I have decided to sponsor two blood relatives of each of these 32 boys,” says Oberoi.

Not many of the blood relatives of these 32 boys facing death in six different cases have till now had an opportunity to meet them after the trials started. The only contact these boys have with their families back home is a once-a-week permission to talk to them on mobile telephones provided through the joint efforts of the Indian Consulate-General and Oberoi.

“The only way to mitigate the sufferings of the boys and their families is to organise meetings of the boys and their kin, but the families cannot afford to travel to Dubai. They had taken loans to send the boys abroad in the hope of a better future, but they have been in jail for while. Not only do the loans need to be repaid, a major channel of income has also been cut. It is terrible,” says Oberoi

There are 350-odd Indians in Sharjah Jail and 32 are facing death sentence in cases of bootlegging and murder. In some cases, the Sharjah Appeal Court gave time to families of convicts to reach a compromise with the victim’s families at the end of trial. In cases where the compromise struck is ratified by the court, death penalty is waived and the sentence reviewed and re-issued.

In Big Trouble

A list of the boys on death row in Sharjah Jail:

Case 1: Mishri Khan murder case

Convicted: Sukhjinder Singh (Patti), Sukhjot Singh of Sanghera and Ram Singh of Kanvi (Amritsar), Baljeet Singh of Sangwal (Jalandhar), Daljeet Singh of Aitiana, Kulwinder Singh of Bansipura, Namjyot Singh of Raikot and Satnam Singh of Koolikalan (Ludhiana), Dharampal Singh of Jhoke Tehal Singhwala (Ferozepore), Satgur Singh of Khanaur Jattan (Sangrur), Kashmir Singh of Rattu Ke (Taran Tarn), Sukhinder Singh of Nikki Miani and Suban Singh of Lohian Khas (Kapurthala), Kuldeep Singh of Kukrana (Moga), Arvinder Singh of Ghokulwada (Gurdaspur), Harjinder Singh (Phagwara) and Taranjit Singh (Kaithal).

Case 2: Bootlegging, murder of Pakistani youth

Convicted: Kuldip Singh, Sachin Kumar Sharma, Rakesh Kumar, Rashwinder Pal, Sukhpal Singh, Hardev Singh, Charanjeet and Amarjeet Kumar. In this case, Hardev Singh has accepted his guilt.

Case 3: Bootlegging, murder of Bikramjit Singh ofDayalgarh (Gurdaspur)

Convicted: Pardeep Kumar of Fatehgarh Niara and Tarlochan Singh of Garh Shankar in Hoshiarpur and Kashmiri Lal of Bhar Singhpura in Nawan Shahr

Case 4: Murder of a youth from Kerala

Convicted: Harpal Singh of Megha Singh Munda in Gurdaspur, Talvinder Singh of Kapurthala and Paramjit Singh of Talla in Gurdaspur

Case 5: Rajbir Singh convicted and sentenced to death in a murder case.

Case 6: Murder of another youth from Kerala

Convicted: Jaswant Singh of Bigwar village (Ludhiana) and Harbhajan Singh of Moaniwat (Hoshiarpur)
 
Top