The Tribune – His efforts ensured return of 17 Indians on death row in Sharjah

Prabhjot Singh, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 13. “Sarbat da Bhalla” (welfare of all) is the motto of 56-year-old Surinderpal Singh Oberoi, a hotelier-turned-philanthropist who has been making it to media headlines not only for securing the release of 17 Indian youths from Sharjah jail but also for his liberal financial help to those in need.

Oberoi, who was born in Nangal, now manages not only Apex Emirates General Trading Llc and a hotel in Dubai but is also the chairman of the Apex Group of Companies.

Much before the release of 17 Indian boys in the Mishri Khan murder case two days ago, Oberoi had visited the homes of most of them and started paying a monthly pension to their families to mitigate their sufferings. Besides, he sponsored parents or spouses to visit convicted persons in Sharjah jail.

Other than these 17 youths, he has also got released so far 33 Indian expatriates who had been languishing in various jails of the UAE. “I have been fully supported by not only the staff of Indian Mission in the UAE but also by certain political bigwigs, including Minister of State for External Affairs Perneet Kaur and former Union Chemical Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.”

Among the beneficiaries has been a girl of Ludhiana who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case. Most of the releases secured by him were through payment of blood money to the families of the victims. He would visit the families, convince them for a settlement, pay them the blood money and get the settlement documents ratified by both the Indian and the UAE missions before submitting them to the UAE courts.

“I do not support any unlawful activity,” he reiterates, maintaining that he has been trying to help expatriate workers who had been lured into traps by those running all such illegitimate activities, including bootlegging. Because of shrinking job market and sharp fall in wages, expatriate workers get lured with big financial returns from such activities without ever releasing the implications.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130214/punjab.htm#6

The Tribune – Sharjah Case, Tears, joy, resolve as 17 youths meet kin

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 12. It was an emotional reunion for 17 youths – who returned to India from the United Arab Emirates – with their families at the Golden Temple here on Tuesday.

A majority of them met their families, who were camping in Amritsar since Monday evening, after a gap of five to seven years. The youths, facing death sentence for the murder of a Pakistani, were released by UAE authorities after they paid Rs 5.3 crore as blood money to the victim’s family.

The youths — 16 from Punjab and one from Haryana — landed at New Delhi on Tuesday morning and reached Amritsar in the evening. Most of them are school dropouts who had gone to the Arab nation to augment their family’s income.

Dressed up in a bright yellow salwar kameez, Ranjit Kaur from Jhoke Tehal Singh Wala village in Ferozepur district, screamed with joy after seeing her husband Dharampal Singh. She was accompanied by her five-and-a-half -year-old son. “It’s for the first time that he (Dharampal) is meeting his son,” she said.

Dharampal says he will now till his five-acre land to earn a living. “I went in search of greener pastures and avoided this easily available option (farming),” he said. He moved to Dubai in September 2007 after paying Rs one lakh to a Jalandhar-based agent to work as a carpenter. “The initial few months were okay. I used to earn Rs 15,000 per month. But soon the private company, which had hired me, ran into some trouble and I was rendered jobless,” he said.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of Jaswinder Kaur of Kukrana village in Moga as she hugged her son Kuldeep Singh (28) after a gap of five years.

Holding her son’s hand firmly, she said she would never allow him to travel out of the country for a job. Kuldeep said his first priority would be to clear the debt lakh his family had taken to send him abroad.

Kuldeep, also a carpenter, said he was fleeced by the private company that had hired him. “They had promised to give me Rs 12,000 per month, but they paid only half the amount,” claimed Kuldeep.

Kashmir Singh of Rattu Ke Village in Tarn Taran says he wants to give his daughters a quality life. A skilled mason, he flew to Dubai with the help of a relative to increase his monthly income in 2007. His hopes, however, were dashed as the company where he was employed failed.

As many as 14 out of 17 youths were staying together in a villa when they were arrested on January 26, 2009. In total, 70 persons from different countries, including, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, were living together to curtail their expenses.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130213/main3.htm

The Tribune – 17 Indians in Sharjah murder case can finally return home

Prabhjot Singh, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Dubai, January 17. A long-drawn legal battle finally come to an end today as 17 Indian boys, who have been languishing in Sharjah jail for more than three years, got the final approval from the Sharjah court and were cleared for deportation.

All of them had got death sentence, which the court had waived in 2011 after Dubai businessman SP Singh Oberoi paid blood money of one million US dollars to the parents of the victim Mishri Khan.

But, permission to leave the United Arab Emirates was held up as a civil petition seeking compensation for those injured in the Mishri Khan murder case was filed.

The case pertains to 2009 when a group of Indian workers clashed with a group of workers from Pakistan in which Mishri Khan of Sargodha was killed and two of his cousins — Mushtaq Ahmed and Shahid Iqbal — were grievously injured.

Subsequently 17 Indian boys were charged for a drunken brawl leading to murder and arson. They were subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. It was under pressure from the media that the Indian mission in UAE hired a team of lawyers to defend the Indian boys who pleaded innocent. An appeal was filed in the Sharjah Appeal Court against the orders of the Sharjah Court in April 2010.

It was during hearing of the appeal that the Sharjah Court asked the defence team if it was prepared for settlement under Diya – blood money – to which it reluctantly agreed holding that it had a fool proof case.

Oberoi paid up the blood money and the court also endorsed the settlement deal and waived the death sentence in 2011. But then the civil petition was filed and it took more than a year for adjudication and forced the 17 Indian boys to have an extended stay in the Sharjah jail even after their death sentence had been waived.

S P Singh Oberoi says that with the pronouncement of a joint compensation of AED 1,00,000 for Mushtaq Ahmed and Shahid Iqbal for grievous injuries they received in the clash will now get Indian boys released.

Case file

Mishri Khan of Pakistan was killed and two were injured in a clash in Sharjah in 2009

The Sharjah police prosecuted 17 Indian boys. They were sentenced to death. All convicts are from Punjab and Haryana

On September 12, 2011, the court waived the death sentence of all the convicts after they paid the “blood money”

On September 23 when they were about to return to India, a civil petition seeking relief for the two injured was filed

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130118/punjab.htm#11