Delhi HC permits woman to travel to Yemen to save her daughter from gallows

Priya is accused of the murder of the Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Madhi, in 2017 by allegedly injecting him with sedatives to get her passport that was in his possession, sources said.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday permitted the mother of a Kerala woman, who is on death row in Yemen for killing a Yemeni national, to travel to the West Asian country to negotiate about blood money with the victim's family and save her daughter from the gallows.

Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Centre to relax its 2017 notification, which barred Indian passport holders from travelling to Yemen, for the petitioner subject to her filing an affidavit that she will travel with another person to the restive nation to negotiate her daughter's release at her own risk and responsibility without any liability to the Government of India or the state government concerned.

The High Court was hearing a plea by Prema Kumari, the mother of Nimisha Priya, seeking facilitation of her travel as well as of three others to Yemen to negotiate with the victim's family about paying blood money to save her daughter. Blood money refers to the compensation paid by offenders or their kin to the family of a murder victim. Yemen's Supreme Court had on November 13 dismissed the appeal of Nimisha Priya, who was working as a nurse in the West Asian country, against her sentence.

Nimisha's mother Prema Kumari said that she would go to Yemen to tell the victim's family that her daughter did not commit the murder but was convicted as she failed to arrange for a lawyer. She said that she wanted to meet the victim's family and ask them to forgive her daughter.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Nimisha's mother Prema Kumari said, "I am suffering from mental trauma due to my daughter's condition. I have been thinking about my daughter every moment for the last five years. She told me that she had not killed anyone. I also believe that she cannot kill anyone. My daughter was unable to appoint a lawyer in the trial court to prove her innocence."

Prema Kumari said that she was grateful to the Yemeni government for giving her daughter a chance to survive for the last five years. She further said that when Priya called her last time, she was in a lot of trouble. "Priya told me that even if she died, the world should know the truth about her innocence," Kumari said. "My granddaughter is turning 11 on December 27. I appeal that my daughter be given life for the sake of her child," Kumari said.

According to sources, Priya is accused of the murder of the Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Madhi, in 2017 by allegedly injecting him with sedatives to get her passport that was in his possession. (With Agency Inputs)