Saved from gallows in Dubai, Kapurthala man returns home

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 24

Kapurthala resident Sandeep Singh, who was given death penalty in Dubai (UAE), returned to India after Sarbat da Bhala Trust paid blood money for his release.

Sandip Singh’s family and members of the local unit of Sarbat Da Bhala Trust received him at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Sandip Singh, a resident of Khangura village of Kapurthala, went to Dubai for labour work in 2006.

On November 29, 2007, the Dubai police nabbed him for the murder of Hardeep Singh of Singhpura in Hoshiarpur.

A lower court announced death penalty for him. In 2010, the family contacted SP Singh Oberoi, a Dubai-based businessman and chairman of Sarbat Da Bhala Trust.

The trust fought a legal battle in the high court and got the death sentence commuted into life imprisonment. Then Oberoi contacted the family of the deceased in Hoshiarpur. The family agreed for settlement by blood money.

Sukhjinder Singh Heir, president of Sarbat Da Bhala Trust in Majha Zone, said, “After an effort of nine years, Sandeep Singh was finally released from the Dubai jail.”

Sandeep Singh Said, “It is my second birth. When the court announced death sentence, I had no hope of returning home.”

Office-bearers of Sarbat Da Bhala Trust claimed that there were a total of 130 Indians who were given death penalty in Dubai, out of which the trust got 94 persons released.