Hassan Cheruppa
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — An Indian expatriate who was behind bars for nearly 10 years in connection with a murder case was released on bail following the submission of bail guarantee by a prominent Saudi national. Abdullah Khalafullah Al-Obaidi, director of Gammon Group and secretary to Prince Saud Bin Musaed Bin Abdulaziz, had completed the procedures to bail out Chalat Chemmangandi Mohammed Nazer who hails from Nallalam Bazar in Kozhikode in the southern Indian state of Kerala. There is a travel ban on Nazer since his private rights case has to be settled while he is in the Kingdom, and his return to India depends on the settlement of this case.
Gammon Group Chairman Sheikh Rafik Mohammed has played a leading role in securing the release of Nazer last Tuesday. Mohammed and Al-Obaidi arrived at Khalediyah police station in Riyadh to receive Nazer. “The police station chief told us that Nazer can leave the Kingdom once the case procedures are over,” Mohammed told Saudi Gazette. “It is a coincidence that our efforts to get Nazer released came to a reality on India’s 67th Republic Day,” he said.
Nazer was arrested along with his relative Machilakath Peediyekal Abdul Raheeem, who is from Feroke Kodambuzha village in Kozhikode district, following the murder of Anas Faiz Al-Shehri, a disabled young Saudi, in December 2006 in the Mansooriyah district in the capital.
The murder happened only a couple of weeks after Abdul Raheeem arrived in the Kingdom and joined the household of the 20-year old Anas as a domestic driver.
According to the case diary, the murder of Anas followed an acrimonious exchange between them at a traffic intersection while Abdul Raheem was driving the car. After Anas' death, Abdul Raheem, who did not have a phone, used the boy’s phone to call Nazer for help. Nazer who rushed to the scene aided him in tampering with the evidence. Nazer, who was arrested the following day, had been in jail since then.
On Jan. 26, 2012, the Riyadh General Courtsentenced Abdul Raheem to death while Nazer was sentenced to two years in jail and 300 lashes. The Riyadh Appeals Court is currently examining the appeal in the case. The General Court is also holding a retrial after a petition filed by the death row inmate Abdul Raheem.
The court terminated the case of Nazer at the end of a few sittings. There were several attempts to get Nazer released after serving his jail term. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh appointed Saudi lawyer Ali Misfar Ali Al-Hajri to follow up the case. The expatriate community, led by the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center, also formed a legal support cell to go ahead with efforts to get him released.
The judge, who is examining the private rights case, recently ordered the release of Nazer on bail after noting that it was unfair that he was still languishing in jail for nearly 10 years even though his punishment was a two-year term.
Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Nazer thanked Gammon Chief Sheikh Rafik and Director Al-Obaidi as well as the Indian Embassy officials and community members for their intervention in securing his release on bail.
Accompanied by Sheikh Rafik, Nazer performed Umrah and visited the Gammon office in Jeddah to convey his gratitude. “I have the feeling of a second birth with spiritual salvation. My wish was to perform Umrah as the first act after getting out of jail,” he said while thanking Sheikh Rafik for taking extra keenness in his case in response to an earnest appeal from his parents to Sheikh Rafik’s mother.
Al-Obaidi promised all help to regulate Nazer’s stay in the Kingdom and return to India once the court grants the green signal for the same. Nazer, who worked as sales manager of a soft drink company in Riyadh at the time of arrest, could not renew his residency permit (iqama) since nine years and the validity of his passport expired in 2011. Nazer is eager to rejoin his elderly parents back in India as well as his wife and two daughters, who were in Riyadh at the time of his arrest.
