Community efforts helps release of 14 Indians from Dubai jails

Dubai, Sept 15 (PTI) Fourteen Indians, who were languishing in jails in Dubai for non-premeditated murders and other traffic accident related cases, have been released in the last one year under an initiative launched by a community organisation here which paid blood-money. The initiative called Project Eagle launched by Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) has managed to secure the release of 14 Indians in the last one year, its senior official said. K Kumar, head of ICWC, said the organisation raised a total of 729,000 dirhams (Rs 9,433,276.84) after an appeal to the Indian community to help those stuck in jail for non-premeditated murders and other traffic accident related cases. ICWC was established under the patronage of the Indian Consulate which reaches out to the most vulnerable sections of the Indian community in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. This has given us a sense of satisfaction and made us feel proud of our collective efforts. We are already focusing on the next set of four cases to help Indians who are languishing in jail for unfortunate reasons, Kumar told PTI. Six of the men who benefited from Project Eagle have gone back to their old jobs and this has given them a new lease of life. The project has a clear brief of helping Indians as long as the cases are genuine and not premeditated. The corpus that makes this possible has come about through donations from individuals, businessmen and companies who wrote cheques from Rs 259 (20 dirhams) to Rs 1,684,434.02 (130,000 dirhams). Since its inception in 2000, ICWC has managed to secure the release of 45 Indians in blood-money cases from prison. A core team of four ICWC volunteers have made this possible. Finding time out of their full-time professional jobs, they pay weekly visits to prison, negotiate with victims families for lower blood-money settlements. They then talk to jail authorities and complete the paperwork needed to pave the way for their release. They are organising a concert by sufi singer Zila Khan next month to raise funds for the blood-money payments, Kumar said.