A second chance for 10 men on the verge of death

For Gurminder Kaur, mother of two daughters, the world came crashing down when she received a call from Al Ain Central Prison of Abu Dhabi last October. She was told her husband Jagjit Singh had been sentenced to death for the murder of Pakistan national Mohammad Faran. When the news sank in, she was overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising her children all alone.
Thankfully, the death sentence was remitted, giving a new lease of life to the young mother (who is in her early thirties), her two daughters and in-laws.The family had taken a loan of Rs 5 lakh to send Jagjit abroad. Had he faced the firing squad, they would not have been able to repay the loan.
The death sentence of 10 Punjabi youths was remitted after Mohammad Izaz, father of Mohammad Faran, the Pakistani national they killed in July 2015 over a bootlegging dispute, appeared in the Abu Dhabi appeal court and submitted a letter of pardon on Wednesday .
“The good news has turned our lives around after the ordeal of the past eight months,“ said Lovepreet Singh, son of Kalwinder Singh, another accused, who had gone to Dubai in 2014. My father was never involved in bootlegging, but on the night of July 15, when the Pa kistani man was killed, he had gone to help his friends. “Had I lost my father, we would have been left to fend for ourselves with the little meagre resources we have here in India,“ he said. Jagtar Singh, father of Satminder Singh from Bar nala, said his son migrated to Dubai in 2013 and was doing menial jobs when he discovered an easy way of earning money by getting involved in bootlegging. “We needed money to repay loans.When he started sending Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, we never bothered to ask,“ he said, adding, “If he faced the firing squad in Abu Dhabi, my family would have been pushed into an unending debt trap. Now we have hopes of his return and help me repay loans.“
Lamenting that the Central government did not offer help, Sarabjit Kaur, sister of Chamkor Singh, another accused in the case, said someone told them about Jagdev Singh, father of Sukhjot Singh, one of the 17 youths whose lives were saved by the Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust in 2013. “We met him in Patiala. Later, he introduced us to trust chairman S P S Oberoi, who took up the case and saved my brother's life,“ she said. Her husband, Ranjit Singh said they tried to contact Union minister Sushma Swaraj but their efforts went in vain.
This is not the first time lives have been saved on payment of blood money and this is not the first time S P S Oberoi and his trust have stepped in to save the lives of those on death row in Middle Eastern countries. He led the campaign to save 17 Punjabi youths, accused of murdering Pakistani national Mishri Khan in January 2009. He paid Rs 5.3 crore to bring the youths back to India in 2013.
WHAT LURES PUNJABIS TO BOOTLEGGING?
According to S P S Oberoi, many unskilled Punjabi youths migrated to middle-eastern countries in the hope of a better life. But, he said, the basic salary of unskilled labourers is limited from Rs 14,000 to Rs 15,000 a month. “Having taken huge loans, these youths find it difficult to make both ends meet and are easily lured into the trade of selling illegal liquor. These youths make groups and earmark their areas. When someone else tries to sell liquor in their areas, feuds erupt, which can be murderous. I have been telling Punjabis not to get trapped in such trapped and go out of the country only after acquiring suitable skills.“