New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the Centre is looking into all possible options, including getting pardon, to a Kerala nurse who is currently facing death sentence for allegedly killing a businessman there in 2017. Nurse Nimishapriya had gone to Yemen in 2012 for employment, where she was arrested and prosecuted in August 2017 for allegedly killing one Talal Al Odaini, a Yemeni businessman.
In his letter to Rajya Sabha member John Brittas, who had sought the Central government's intervention to release the Kerala nurse lodged in a Yemeni jail, the External Affairs Minister said, "The possibility that tribal customs and traditions may offer relief is also being explored in cooperation with community organisations."
"I assure you that welfare of Indians abroad is of highest priority for the Government of India and Ms. Nimishapriaya's case will continue to receive our full attention," Jaishankar said in the letter dated April 27.
It is to be noted that earlier, Brittas had written a letter to Jaishankar seeking his intervention in the matter and requesting the minister to ‘spearhead the actions’ to facilitate a ‘constructive discussion’ between ‘Save Nimishapriya International Action Council’ and the family of the deceased, so as to make them amenable to render pardon to nurse Nimishapriya after accepting the blood money.
He had also said that the action council is learnt to be ready to pay the blood money by making necessary interactions with the Government of Yemen and the other influential persons in that region.
After the prosecution of nurse Nimishapriya, the trial court in Yemen pronounced her the death sentence in August, 2020. The appeal filed with the Appellate Court in Yemen was rejected last month.
It is to be noted that the Government of India had appointed a lawyer to defend Nimishapriya.