M A I N   N E W S

Murder of Boy from Kerala
Dubai court sentences 10 Punjabis for 15 yrs
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Dubai, January 4
A Dubai Shariat Court today held 10 Indians and a Pakistani boy guilty of murdering a co-Indian worker after a drunken brawl and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for periods varying from 10 years to life.

While two of the Indian boys — Major Singh (Gurdaspur) and Harpinder Singh (Batala) — have been awarded life imprisonment, eight of their accomplices — Sukhjit Singh (Amritsar), Rakesh Kumar (Phagwara), Sarabhjit Singh (Gurdaspur), Rashpal Singh (Jalandhar), Manjit Singh (Pathankot), Balwinder Singh (Nawanshahr), Sukhwinder Singh (Ludhiana) and Amarjit Singh (Batala) — were ordered to spend 15 years in jail.

The only Pakistani, Farar Ahmed, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Nine of these convicts — Sukhjit Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Sarabhjit Singh, Rashpal Singh, Manjit Singh, Balwinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Major Singh and Amarjit Singh — along with four others, including three Indians — Surjit Singh (Raikot, Ludhiana), Balwinder Singh (Jalandhar) and Surinder Singh (Samrala) --- are also facing trial for the murder of two other Indian workers. The 13th person charged with the murder of two Indian workers, who also incidentally belonged to Kerala, is a Pakistani, Mohammed Rafat.

Though the verdict in the second case was scheduled to be given yesterday, the court has now fixed February 7 as the date for pronouncing its decision.

The identity of the deceased in the first case, who belonged to Kerala, was not revealed. The court upheld all charges slapped against the 11 suspects.

They were charged with conspiracy, causing murder by intention, hiding dead body after the crime, bootlegging and consuming liquor.

Interestingly, the same charges were slapped against 12 Indians and a Pakistani boy in the second case as well where again the identity of the deceased was not disclosed.

Dubai-based hotelier and businesman SP Singh Oberoi, who has been pursuing the case of all boys facing trial in murder cases, was present in the court when the judgment was pronounced.

“We will go in for appeal against the conviction and sentence,” he said, maintaining that the “families of these Indian workers were not even aware of their whereabouts till the case of 17 Indian boys convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a Pakistani boy hit newspaper headlines early last year. The families were under the impression that they were in jail for committing minor offences, including drinking at public or prohibited places or for bootlegging.”

In the case of the 17 Indian boys facing the death sentence in the Mishri Khan murder case, the Indian Consulate in Dubai engaged a team of lawyers to defend them in the Sharjah Appeal Court where the next hearing has been fixed for February 17. As of today, there are more than 60 Indian workers who have been either convicted or are facing trial in murder cases in the United Arab Emirates.