Narrating her plight, S. Padma, wife of Hanumanthu, said, “My husband is in jail for the past seven years. With the constant efforts of the Migrants Rights Council, the wife of the Nepali guard has agreed to pardon our husbands for Rs 15 lakh. But we do not have the money to pay.”
She said they had moved the AP High Court which ordered the Centre to consider their representations as per law. “We wrote to the Centre and the state government but there is no response. So we have decided to sell our kidneys to raise money.”
She added, “My daughter Srilatha is seven years old now and she was in my womb when my husband left for Dubai.”
N. Raju, son of Nampelli Venkat, is now 15 years old. He said, “I saw my father when I was eight. We haven’t heard him on phone too.”
Migrants Rights Council vice-president M. Bheem Reddy said that as per Shariat law, the family members of the deceased can pardon the accused with due compensation and they can be released from jail.
The Indian consulate in Dubai has initiated dialogue with the wife of the Nepali guard who agreed for Rs 15 lakh compensation. “But these families don’t have the money. During YSR’s regime the amount had been paid from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for a Kadapa native in Kuwait. If the law does not permit it, at least the state government, like Kerala and Punjab, should appeal to NRI philanthropists in the region to help out.”