Man freed a year after jail term ends

Family of road accident victim accepts blood money settlement, allowing Indian driver to be freed.

DUBAI // An Indian man who served about a year more than his six-month jail sentence for a road accident that killed a Pakistani pedestrian was yesterday released from prison.

Anil Kumar Sridharan, 43, was imprisoned in January 2009 and released yesterday from Dubai Central Prison after the family of Amshid Ali, the Pakistani victim, accepted a blood money settlement, Sridharan's lawyer said.

"The Dubai Traffic public prosecution immediately ordered his release from prison," Vinod Verma said. "The public prosecution's release order came after the Dubai Sharia court issued a certificate that the diya [blood] money had been accepted by the victim's legal heirs."

Sridharan is the eighth inmate to gain freedom due to the efforts of an aid group, the Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC), which raised a large portion of the settlement funds.

His case was one of 13 identified by the ICWC last year, where the deaths were caused in road accidents and worksite related incidents without premeditation and the inmates had completed their jail terms but could not raise the Dh200,000 in blood money.

Sridharan drove a vehicle that struck and killed Ali in Jebel Ali Industrial Area.