A man who was doing time in Qatar Central Jail for murder conviction since 2003 , but who had managed to get a new lease of life following a long, hard fought battle, has finally been reunited with his family at his home in Laxmaniya, Belaha-7, in the district.

After finally reaching home in the wee hours of Thursday morning, Chandra Shekhar Yadav, 40, and his younger son Bibek Kumar shared an emotional moment as both failed to recognise each other. The father-son duo finally hugged each other after being introduced by Yadav’s nephew Ranjeet Yadav, who had reached the bus stop to receive him.

Yadav’s wife Ramdulari greeted him into the house after performing a religious ritual after adorning him with garland and Tika.  Soon the whole family burst into tears of joy after seeing Yadav in person after 13 long years.

While Ramdulari, who had been fasting since her husband’s arrival in Kathmandu on Wednesday,  said that all she wanted was the safety of her husband, Yadav said that he no longer wanted to go abroad and that he had had enough of the gulf country.

Stating that the charges levelled against him were false and that there was plenty of evidence supporting his claim of innocence, Yadav said that he would now try to seek justice and appealed the government to help him in his battle.

Yadav and two Indian nationals were convicted of murdering an Indonesian woman, whose body was recovered in a beach. The lower court in Qatar had issued death penalty to the trio in 2006, but the sentence was later revised to 15 years jail term after the government of Nepal and Nepali community appealed to the Qatari government.

The government of Nepal had also hired a lawyer in Qatar to fight Yadav’s case

Yadav was finally acquitted by the Court of Cassation of Qatar, the country’s highest court, after the Qatar government decided to pardon him on the occasion of Qatar ’s National Day on December 18.

Published on: 9 January 2015 | The Kathmandu Post