Dubai: "I never knew he was in jail. We used to talk every Sunday and he would say he is fine. But when the money stopped coming, I realised something was wrong...."
As Ranjit Kaur, wife of Dharam-pal Singh, one of the 17 convicted in the bootlegging-murder case in Sharjah, spoke to the press in Dubai on Wednesday, there were tears in her eyes. After three long years, the 24-year-old from Punjab, India, met her husband in prison yesterday, showing him pictures of their five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.
Like her, seven others — fathers, mothers and brothers — had flown in to Dubai to meet the convicts. The trip, sponsored by city hotelier S.P. Singh, was a coming together of long-lost families.
Hope for justice
"I feel satisfied that I saw my son," said Manjit Kaur, mother of convict Sukhjot Singh. And the feeling was echoed by most others present, with one of them noting, "They are being fed well, play football and watch TV in prison."
Having just attended the fourth hearing in the case at the Sharjah Appeals Court, they expressed confidence that justice would prevail. The case, which had been adjourned on three occasions for want of a Punjabi translator, made headway on Wednesday as the court had arranged for a translator who could communicate with the convicts in their native language.
The 17 Indians, who are being represented by defence lawyers Mohammad Salman Advocates & Legal Consultants, challenged the investigations that led to the lower court awarding them death sentence following the demise of Pakistani Mizri Khan in an alleged bootleging-murder near a Sharjah labour camp in 2009. All the 17 pleaded not guilty and said they were never questioned by prosecution or the lower court and had been convicted on the basis of police case diary. "The case is in its initial phase and we are hopeful of a positive outcome," said Bindu Suresh Chettur, lawyer with Mohammad Salman Advocates.
Family members of the accused said they were innocent. The eight representatives spoke of how the boys had come to Dubai as drivers, carpenters or labourers and could not be involved in bootlegging or a premeditated murder. Balraj Singh, father of Arvinder Singh, said his son, a driver, was on his way to Sharjah airport when he was arrested.
Rana Gurmit Sodhi, a legislator from Punjab who accompanied the families, said he had full faith in the UAE judicial system, the Indian Consulate and the lawyers representing the accused.
Meanwhile, in a statement by Lawyers for Human Rights International, General Secretary Navkiran Singh regretted that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had opposed the presence of Indian lawyers in Sharjah court or their visits to the jail and added that there were 1,361 Indians currently in UAE jails. The next date of hearing is on September 29.
