New Delhi: There is little that Government of India can do to secure the release of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya or prevent her execution in Yemen, the Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday. The Centre also made it clear that the offer of ‘blood money’ was made by Nimisha’s family and is a private matter that it cannot get involved in.
Authorities in Yemen have indicated that the nurse from Kerala is to be executed on July 16. She has been charged with the murder of her business partner Talal Abdo Mehdi.
“There’s nothing much the government can do. Looking at the sensitivity of Yemen, it’s (blood money) not diplomatically recognised. Blood money is a private negotiation,” Attorney General R Venkataramani said. He added that there is a point up to which India can go in the matter, and the government has already reached that limit.
Nimisha, from the Palakkad district, allegedly drugged and murdered Mehdi, a Yemeni national, with the help of another nurse. The two then allegedly dismembered his body and disposed of the remains in an underground tank. Nimisha challenged the charges, but the courts in Yemen dismissed her appeals.
Since the location falls within the Houthi-controlled Sana region and due to diplomatic hurdles, government agencies and organisations working for her release have been unable to make any breakthrough. Even then, some organisations succeeded in taking Nimisha’s mother to Mehdi’s family. She offered blood money, but the family refused to accept it.
“There’s a point up to which the government of India can go. We have reached that. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We didn’t want to complicate the situation by going public. We are trying at a private level, some Sheikh, influential people there, all that is being done,” Venkataramani told the court.
“There’s no way we can get to know what’s really happening. We have been trying everything possible. It’s not a matter where the government can be asked to do something beyond. It’s very unfortunate,” the Attorney General said.
Nimisha Priya was working in Yemen as a nurse since 2008. She travelled to the country with her husband Tommy Thomas after their marriage in 2011. Due to the civil war in Yemen in 2014, her husband returned to Kerala with their daughter, while Nimisha stayed back.
She later partnered with Mehdi to open a nursing home. According to Nimisha, she drugged Mehdi to get back her passport and money. She also alleged that he physically abused her. She claimed she only administered sedatives, but he died from an overdose. She is currently being held in Sana’a Central Prison, awaiting execution.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to PM Narendra Modi on Sunday, seeking his intervention. “Considering the fact that this is a case deserving sympathy, I appeal to the Hon’ble Prime Minister to take up the matter and intervene with the authorities concerned to save the life of Smt Nimisha Priya,” Vijayan wrote.
Congress leader K C Venugopal also sought the intervention of the Prime Minister in saving Nimisha Priya from execution.