ABHA: The court cancelled the verdict of chopping the right palm of a youth hailing from Alappuzha jailed for the past nine months on offences of theft. The criminal court in Khamis Mushait, a city in the southern part of Saudi Arabia, in April ordered to chop the right palm of the youth. The youth with the help of Indian Social Forum and Jeddah Consulate, filed an appeal against it. Following that, a three-member bench studied the plea, cancelled the verdict of chopping the right palm of the youth and instead awarded four-years jail term and subjected him to 400 beatings.

The case relates to the loss of 1,10,000 riyals from a prominent restaurant having branches at Abha and Khamis Mushait. A youth from Kerala who had been working in the same company for six years was arrested in a probe conducted. The entire missing amount was recovered from the washroom. In that basis, the court ruled maximum punishment under the Shari'ah law. He said he could not explain his situation before the court owing to fear and poor command over language.

Following that, his mother in Kerala and friends approached the Indian Social forum and Abha leadership. They later filed an appeal with the help of the Jeddah Consulate.

His family later thanked all after the verdict was cancelled.