The news of death penalty for Shova Pariyar, a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, has cast a pall of gloom over her family. Pariyar, 32, from Tanahun, had gone to Saudi Arabia for foreign employment three years ago. She was accused and convicted of slitting the throat of a two-year-old child. The sentence was announced on Monday.

“Her 64-year old father Bhim Bahadur and fifty-plus year old mother became unconscious after they heard the news,” informed Keshavraj Kandel, a neighbour of the family. He further added that her family as well as the entire village was shattered by the news.

Udayraj Pande, Nepali ambassador to Saudi Arabia confirmed the death sentence on Pariyar, yesterday. Pariyar was sentenced to death after the family of the child refused to accept blood money. She was to be executed the very next day after Eid, but the sentence was postponed until Monday.

Earlier, the Pariyars had appealed for general amnesty, claiming that she was falsely charged. “I would never believe that my sister committed such a heinous act,” said Shova’s sister Rekha. Shova, the mother of a disabled child, had been living with her parents after her husband married another woman. 

Following the incident, locals have urged the concerned authorities and the government to provide relief to the victim’s family and/or assist with the upbringing of the handicapped child.

The villagers are preparing for Pariyar’s final rites using Kush (a kind of grass used by Hindus as symbol of the deceased’s body) as thebody wasn’t brought back to Nepal.

Published on: 7 August 2014 | Republica