It was heartening to learn about the magnanimity of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in paying off the blood money for Saleem Basha convicted of killing eight persons in a road accident. It was indeed a very kind gesture that ended the ordeal of the Indian driver who could never have arranged a huge amount of SR 653,000 on his own to get out from the jail and see his family again.
I wonder how was he driving a trailer without proper insurance cover and how did the employer owning the trailer not arrange it. If he were to have the insurance coverage, he would not have spent these six long years in the jail away from his family who too must have suffered a lot on different counts. There may be hundreds of other drivers languishing in jails due to their inability to pay off the blood money.
Although, the Traffic Police now requires third party insurance for different purposes including renewal of Istemarah (license) of vehicles, transfer of ownership of vehicles and issuance or renewal of driving license, yet, many a times people do not obtain or renew the insurance cover when it is not required. This loophole needs to be filled in order to ensure that neither the guilty nor the victim suffer due to damage to vehicles or human body in road accidents. — Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam
King Abdullah’s kind gesture
