Can 'Blood Money' Save Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya? Has It Saved Indians Before?
Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya - sentenced to death by Yemen for killing a man harassing her - will likely be executed Wednesday unless her lawyers can persuade his family to accept ' blood money ' of $1 million (i.e., Rs 8.6 crore) as financial compensation for his unintended death.
On Monday the Indian government told the Supreme Court 'blood money' is likely Nimisha Priya's last hope of escaping the death sentence. Attorney General R Venkataramani said the government could not do much more - at this time - to ensure the Kerala nurse's release from Yemen.
"It is unfortunate... there is a point till which we can go. We have reached it," he said.
'Blood Money' In The Koran
It is money paid to the family of the person killed in exchange for a pardon. In Sharia law - followed by Yemen and (to varying degrees) other Islamic countries, including Saudia Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan - the murdered person's legal heirs have the right to demand and/or accept this compensation.
Under Sharia law if 'blood money' is offered and accepted, then the offender - Nimisha Priya, in this case - can't be executed. In most cases s/he, or they, are also pardoned by the government.
'Blood money' is not a new concept. It was widely practiced as far back as the sixth and seventh centuries CE, primarily by warring tribes to end cycles of violence and bloodshed. Back then payments would have ranged from gold and silver to trade goods like camels and furs.
The concept was later formalised in the Koran.
In chapter 4, verse 92, it says "... whoever kills a believer by mistake must free a believing slave and pay blood money (diyah, set at 100 camels by the Prophet Mohammed) to the deceased's family". It also says "... if one cannot afford that, let them fast two consecutive months..."
An offer to fast for two months, though, will not save Ms Priya in this case.
'Blood Money' Cases
Over the years the 'blood money' concept has been exercised in quite a few instances, both by Indians looking to escape death sentences, including a 2017 case in which a Saudi businessman-philanthropist paid around Rs 1.8 crore to free a Telangana man on death row.
There have been cases in the United Arab Emirates too and others in which compensation was offered but refused, or delayed, leading to prolonged incarceration or even death.
There have also been cases where Indians received compensation from local residents, such as in April 2023, when 20-year-old Mohd Mirza was badly hurt - he suffered 50 per cent damage to his brain - in a bus accident that killed 17 people, and was paid Rs 11 crore in exchange
This, however, is the first time 'blood money' is being offered in a case in Yemen.
'Blood Money' Cases Involving Indians
In 2017 a Kerala man, AS Sankaranarayanan, was freed after spending eight years in a UAE prison for the accidental death of an electrician (a Bangladeshi worker) at his home.
Sankaranarayanan had been directed to pay 200,000 dirhams (now worth Rs 47 lakh) but did not have that much money. It was not till a newspaper report about his plight that he began to receive help.
Amazingly, the Emirates Islamic Bank then paid the full amount.
That same year a Telangana man, Limbadri, returned home after spending nearly a decade on death row for the accidental murder of a Saudi national. His cause was championed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who eventually got a local businessman to pay the diyah.
In 2014 three Indians on death row in Saudi Arabia for six years - for the murder of their compatriot - were released after a businessman paid around Rs 1.12 crore to the fourth man's family.
There was also a remarkable case from 2013, when the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia paid 'blood money' - approximately Rs 1.5 crore - for Saleem Basha, an Indian truck driver from Bengaluru, who had been convicted of killing nine people in a road accident in 2006.
A far more recent case involves Abdul Rahim, also from Kerala, who was accused of accidentally killing the minor son of his employer in Riyadh. This was in 2006 when Rahim was 26 years old.
He escaped the death sentence after the boy's family accepted diyah of Rs 34 crore - the amount was secured via a massive fundraising effort by the Malayali community. He was, however, handed a 20-year jail term that included time already served, meaning the sentence ends in December 2026.
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