Nimisha Priya’s mother to travel to Yemen from Mumbai on April 20

Prema Kumari, 57, mother of 34-year-old Nimisha Priya, who is on death row at the Central prison in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, will leave for the war-torn country on April 20 to make a final attempt to save her daughter.

She will travel along with Samuel Jerome Bhaskaran, who has been working in Yemen for over 24 years, in her attempt to convince the victim’s family to accept the blood money and save her daughter from death penalty. Nimisha, a nurse, remains imprisoned for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national in July 2017.

The hurdles before Ms. Kumari’s repeated efforts to travel to Yemen were cleared after the Delhi High Court on her plea asked the Centre in December last to relax its 2017 notification, which barred Indian passport holders from travelling to Yemen. She had submitted an affidavit agreeing to travel to Yemen at her own personal risk without any liability to the government.

“She will travel to the Aden international airport in Yemen from Mumbai on April 20. From Aden, they will travel by road to Sanaa,” said Subhash Chandran K.R., Supreme Court lawyer, who represented her in the Delhi High Court.

Ms. Kumari, who has been working as a domestic help for over six years at Kizhakkambalam near here, had said earlier that she was confident of convincing the victim’s family to accept the blood money and save her daughter.

A native of Kollengode in Palakkad district, Nimisha was accused of murdering Yemeni national Tabal Abdo Mahdi after she allegedly injected him with sedatives in an attempt to reclaim her passport. It was alleged that an overdose had resulted in his death. She was awarded the death penalty by the Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council, which had dismissed her appeal and upheld the death sentence in November last.