More Than Rs 24 Crore Collected, Efforts Escalated For Abdul Rahim’s ReleaseFamily and friends of Abdul Rahim Machilakath Peediyekkal, who has been lodged in a Saudi Arabian prison and facing death sentence, have raised more than Rs 24 crore from crowd funding. The money will be used as blood money to be paid to the family of a boy who died while Abdul Raheem was on duty as driver in a Saudi household. Several ‘Save Abdul Rahim’ committees are in full pace in Gulf regions and India to collect the required 15 million Saudi Riyals, which is equivalent to Rs 33.24 crore.
Abdul Rahim’s Release From Death Row: Rs 28 Crore Raised In 4 Days, Rs 6 Crore Pending
As per reports, Abdul Rahim who used to work as an auto rickshaw driver in Kerala’s Feroke, went to Gulf in search of better pastures. In 2006, he joined as a house driver in Riyadh. Taking care of a differently-abled boy in the family was one of his duties.
As per reports, a device which supported the boy to breathe accidentally fell inside the car when Abdul Rahim was driving the car with the boy. Later, the boy went unconscious and died inside the vehicle. Eventually, during the trial, Abdul Rahim was booked for murder and sentenced to death as per the local law.
In October 2023, the family of the boy has agreed for a Diya, the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake, that needs to be paid in six months period.
As the Saudi government offices are on Eid holidays currently, Yusuf Kakkanchery, Indian Embassy official and the person who is working closely with the case from the beginning, told a Malayalam media house that him and the officials from Save Abdul Rahim committees will be meeting the advocate of the boy’s family to intimate them about the blood money and will request them to speed up the efforts to complete the legal formalities to secure Abdul Rahim’s release as the offices open.
At the same time, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh has already started the procedures to quickly bring the money collected in India to Saudi Arabia. For that, Ministry of External Affairs routes are being sought to enhance the transfer. With the end of the festive holidays, the aid committees and the Embassy are trying to take the plaintiffs to court and get a court order for Rahim’s release, Madhyamam reported.
Earlier, several action committees have been formed to raise money for Abdul Rahim through crowdfunding. A mobile application named ‘SAVE ABDUL RAHIM’ has also been developed as part of raising blood money.