Three Indian men who were charged with murder and sentenced to death have been released this week, following the payment of AED 150,000 in blood money from a Dubai businessman.
The men — PK, KL and TS — had been found guilty of the murder of an Indian man Bikram Jeet Singh, during an argument about alcohol bootlegging, and were sentenced to death in 2009.
Having returned to their home in the north Indian state of Punjab, the men said they were innocent and had been forced to sign documents they could not read, according to Agence France-Presse.
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Their release was negotiated by Indian hotelier SP Singh Oberoi, who has previously financed the release of others facing the death penalty.
Oberoi heard of the case while on a goodwill prison visit to provide Indian inmates with phone cards to call home. A court approved the agreement that he brokered after members of the three men's families formally offered an apology to the victim's family.
Oberoi, who is the founder of the Indian Punjabi Society in Dubai, said he flew back to India with the men after arranging blood-money payments. The men had already served two years for bootlegging.
"I took each one to their homes, all their family were there, they were so happy and crying from happiness," he said. "The three were taken in for bootleg and murder, but the family finally approved blood money and they were let out."
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