Nimisha's mother Prema Kumari is in Yemen trying to save her and her efforts are paying off.
Prema Kumari went to Yemen in April 2024 after a special permission from the Government of India last year as part of a campaign to save her daughter and has met her daughter only twice in so many days.
Nimisha's mother has recently given an interview to BBC Tamil in which she has mentioned her first meeting with Nimisha. Before the meeting, Nimisha sent a message to the family through the jail administration.
Regarding the message, Prema Kumari said, 'She messaged us but did not mention the latest decision (hanging). In the message, he asked only our condition. She did not want me to be worried about the decision, so she did not say anything.
Nimisha's mother came to know about her death sentence from social activist Samuel Jerome who has been trying to save Nimisha for the last seven years. 'Save Nimisha Priya Action Council' has also been formed in October 2020 with the help of Jerome to save Nimisha.
Regarding her meeting with Nimisha, her mother says, 'I met Nimisha after 12 years. On April 23, I went to meet him with the embassy officer. But I also feared whether I would be able to meet my daughter or not.
He further said, 'Two more people came with him and everyone wore the same clothes. On seeing me, she came running and hugged and started crying. But then people asked us to remain silent. I met him for the first time in 12 years. Even if I die, he will not forget that moment. At the time of meeting, Nimisha was showing as if she is happy.
What did the government say about saving Nimisha?
On Monday, a petition was heard in the Nimisha Priya case, seeking the central government to use the use of diplomatic routes to save the Indian nurse. Advocate Subhash Chandran KR, who filed a petition on behalf of Nimisha's family. Said that diplomatic routes should be searched as soon as possible in this case.
During the hearing, Attorney General R Venkatramani said that Yemen is occupied by Huti rebels and the Government of India does not recognize the huts so that the government cannot do much in this matter. Yemen has been in the grip of civil war since 2014.
The Attorney General said, 'Given the sensitivity of Yemen, the government cannot do anything special ... We do not recognize the government of Yemen diplomatically ... We have done what the Government of India can do to an extent. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We did not want to complicate the situation in public, we are trying at private level.
At the same time, advocate Subhash Chandran K.R. It also said that even at the last moment, Nimisha Priya's family and her supporters are talking to the victim's family about blood money so that Nimisha Priya can be forgiven under Sharia law. In Yemen, Huti is running the government which is to follow Sharia i.e. Islamic law.
What is blood money?
According to Islamic law, the victims or his family can decide what punishment should be given to the criminal. According to Yemen's law, if someone has killed someone, then it is punished, but if the victim's family wants him to forgive the criminal with money, then he can do so. This is called Diya in blood money and Islamic law.
In the case of Nimisha, 40 thousand dollars have been given through the Indian Embassy so far to start talks with Mahdi's family.
Mahdi's family has been offered 1 million dollars (Rs 8.6 crore) as blood money on behalf of Nimisha Priya's family.
Full story of Nimisha Priya
This story begins 17 years ago in 2008 when Nimisha Priya, a resident of Palakkad in Kerala, goes to Yemen to support her poor mother. Nimisha got a nurse job in a government hospital in the capital Sana and then in 2011 she returns to Kerala for marriage. They were married to Tommy Thomas of Kochi and after a month of marriage, both husband and wife return to Yemen. In Yemen, Thomas also gets the job of an electrical assistant with low salary.
In 2012, Nimisha gave birth to a daughter after which economic problems started in the family. When the daughter grew up a little, Thomas returned to Kerala in 2014 and Nimisha decided to continue the job by staying in Yemen. This was the same period when the civil war started in Yemen.
Away from husband and daughter, Nimisha decided that she would open her own clinic to earn more money so that she can call her husband and girl back to Yemen. But for this he needed a local partner because no foreigner in Yemen can start his business without partnership. Meanwhile, Nimisha came in contact with Mahdi. Nimisha had delivered Mahdi's wife and for this reason she had some acquaintance with her.
She came to India to meet her daughter in 2015 before starting a business with Mahdi. During this time, Mahdi also came with him and allegedly stole Nimisha's wedding photos during this time. Nimisha took loans from friends and relatives and raised Rs 50 lakh to open the clinic in Yemen and then returned and opened her clinic.
Nimisha's lawyer said in the court in 2016 that after the opening of the clinic, Mahdi started physical abuse of Nimisha and manipulated the documents of the clinic and started telling her as his own. He also took Nimisha's passport so that she could not run away from there.
Nimisha complained to Sana police against Mahdi and this is what Mahdi took advantage of the pictures stolen of Nimisha's wedding. He got his picture instead of Thomas and told the police that Nimisha is his wife. After this, Sana police put Nimisha in jail for 6 days.
Fainted medicine to get passport and ...
After being released from jail, Mahdi's physical and mental atrocities on Nimisha increased further. He used to beat him a lot while drunk. In 2017, Nimisha made a plan to get her passport by giving her an unconscious medicine but the medicine did not do her job. Mahdi was accustomed to taking drugs, so fainting medicine did not show any effect on him.
In the second attempt, Nimisha increased the dose of unconscious medicine slightly, in which Mahdi died in minutes. Fearful of Mahdi's death, Nimisha cut her into pieces and then put her in the underground watertank and escaped from there. After getting Mahdi's body, the search for Nimisha started and after a month she was caught from the Saudi-Yaman border.
In 2020, a local court sentenced him to death. Appeal was made against the sentence in Yemen's Supreme Court but the appeal was rejected in 2023. After this, the matter reached Yemen's President Rashad Al-Alimi and he also signed his signature on 30 December 2024, retaining Nimisha's death sentence. However, now his death sentence has been postponed.
Hanging two days later ... Can Nimisha Priya's life be saved? What is written in the documents of Yemeni Court
