Now Reading: Two Telangana men stuck in Saudi jails need Rs 13 crore blood money
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Two Telangana men stuck in Saudi jails need Rs 13 crore blood money
Two Telangana men stuck in Saudi jails need Rs 13 crore blood money
Two families from Telangana are seeking government and public help to raise diyah, or blood money, to free their loved ones from Saudi Arabian prisons. Kummari Shravan Kumar, 22, from Nizamabad, has…
Two families from Telangana are seeking government and public help to raise diyah, or blood money, to free their loved ones from Saudi Arabian prisons. Kummari Shravan Kumar, 22, from Nizamabad, has been jailed since May 2024 after an ambulance he drove killed a Saudi couple. A Saudi court ordered him to pay 3.30 lakh Saudi riyals (about Rs 84 lakh) for his release.
The Times of India reports a second case: Suheeb, an IT engineer from Hyderabad, is on death row after a road accident in January 2025 killed a Bangladeshi national. He needs 5 million Saudi riyals (about Rs 12.5 crore) in diyah. His family has appealed to a higher court. Shravan is out on bail but under a travel ban, living on handouts. Both families have approached the state government through the Pravasi Prajavani programme and appealed to elected representatives.
The families point to the Kerala case where public donations raised Rs 34 crore in weeks to free Abdul Rahim. They hope for a similar miracle. Deccan Chronicle reports that Shravan's wife Mamata, who is disabled, has petitioned Union minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar and local MPs. The families are waiting for government intervention and court decisions.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Both sources report the facts neutrally, but Deccan Chronicle focuses solely on Shravan's case, framing it as a family tragedy and a plea for government help. The Times of India broadens the story by pairing Shravan with Suheeb, whose death sentence and higher blood money demand make the crisis more acute, and by citing the Kerala precedent to suggest a path forward. The common ground is the helplessness of the families, but neither source critically examines why the Indian government has not intervened more forcefully. The key number to watch is whether the Telangana government or public donors step in, as happened in Kerala.
Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): deccanchronicle.com (neutral report), timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
