CHENNAI: Well over a month after an appeal court in Yemen upheld the death sentence awarded to Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, the family of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi, who was murdered by her, has reportedly demanded 50 million Yemeni rials as blood money. This amounts to Rs 1,52,32,757.
According to a report, Yemeni officials met Nimisha in the prison and apprised her about the willingness of the victim's family to consider negotiations over blood money.
Earlier, all the efforts made by Nimisha's family back home in Kerala to save her life by offering blood money had gone in vain since the victim's family demanded death for her. Nimisha has been pleading for commuting her death sentence on the ground that she was compelled to use force after she had to suffer physical torture at the hands of Talal.
Now, the family of the victim has climbed down from their earlier stand giving hope for Nimisha and her family.
The 'Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council' has been trying to get a pardon for her from capital punishment by paying blood money.
Nimisha has a seven-year-old daughter who stays with her father Tomy Thomas in Idukki.
Nimisha, a native of Palakkad in Kerala was found guilty of murdering 24-year-old Talal Abdo Mahdi, chopping his body into pieces and disposing it of in a water tank, in 2017.
It has been stated that in July 2017, Nimisha injected Talal with sedatives in order to retrieve her passport which was in his custody. As he died within a few minutes due to a drug overdose, Nimisha decided to conceal his body. So, with the help of another nurse Hanan, she chopped the body before disposing of it.
While Nimisha was awarded capital punishment, Hanan was sentenced to life imprisonment.