Dalwinder Singh (27) with his family in Hoshiarpur. Dalwinder Singh (27) with his family in Hoshiarpur. Five youths, four from Punjab and one from Bihar, lodged in a Shahrjah (UAE) jail since 2011 for murder of another youth from UP, finally reached home on Friday, months after their death sentence was commuted when a hotelier hailing from Punjab paid “blood money” to the victim’s family, which in turn pardoned them. The five youths are Dalwinder Singh from Hoshiarpur, Dharmendra of from Chapra in Bihar, Harwinder Singh from Amritsar district, Ranjit Ram of Nawanshahr and Sucha Singh from Patiala. They were accused of killing Virender Chauhan, who hailed from Azamgarh district in UP, following a clash between groups involved in illicit liquor trade in Sharjah on November 4, 2011. After returning home on Friday morning, Dalwinder Singh (27) told The Indian Express he had never thought he would meet his family again in life. “We all had lost hope to see our families again,” said Dalwinder, who went to Dubai at the age of 18 in 2009 to work in Royal International Construction Company. He is a matriculate. Last year, Dr S P Singh Oberoi, a hotelier, met victim Virendra Chauhan’s family in Azamgarh. After a lot of persuasion, the family agreed to pardon them, following which Dr Oberoi paid them Rs 21 lakh in compensation. “I then presented the attested documents relating to their pardon in the court of Sharjah on September 9 last year, which were accepted by the court. The following month, the court commuted their death penalty to a prison term of three years and seven months. But the youths had already completed six years in jail,” Dr Oberoi told The Indian Express on phone from Dubai. He said the final judgment came on April 11 this year and youths were released from jail on April 19. For all the latest Chandigarh News, download Indian Express App

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