Couple released from Saudi jail return home

Thiruvananthapuram: A couple returned home to Kerala on Saturday after spending nearly two years in a Saudi jail convicted of a murder.

Roy Joseph and Biji Roy broke down at the airport in Kochi, 250km from here, when their twin children - whom they last saw as one-year-olds - failed to recognise them.

Their relatives, who had accompanied Albert and Kesi, had to console the children also as they too started crying.

'Blood money'

Joseph and Biji were jailed in July 2006 after they were adjudged guilty of the murder of their Nepalese maid.

Joseph's cellphone had been found near the maid's body which led the investigators to suspect him. The case was further complicated in that the maid had run away from their earlier sponsor.

When the investigation started, they had to send their children back home to their relatives in Kerala.

Roy's brother Tomy and his wife Bina had been taking care of the children.

Construction company

Joseph and Biji were released from jail after they paid 100,000 rials (Dh100,000) as "blood money" to the kin of the deceased woman.

Roy was working with a construction company and Biji as a nurse in a Riyadh hospital when their life took an unexpected turn.

The couple owe their freedom to several organisations of non-resident Indians from Kerala.

Some of their representatives even travelled to Nepal to convince the maid's relatives to accept the blood money in return for the couple's freedom.