PTI
 
Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 6: Profusely thanking the Union and state governments for securing his release from a Saudi prison, Puthen Veettil Abdul Latheef Naushad said on Thursday that the media had also played a key role for his safe return home.
 
"While in prison in Dammam, I closely followed the developments in my case by listening to the radio. I know the Union and the state governments have intervened effectively for me and I am grateful to them," Naushad told reporters, on arrival at the airport here. Read: Emotional re-union as Naushad returns home

Stroking the cheeks of his son and daughter and flanked by his wife Suhaila and parents, Naushad said social organizations in the Gulf and at home had greatly helped the family pass through the hard times in the last three years. Naushad was imprisoned after he damaged the eye of a Saudi national in a scuffle. He faced an eye-for-an eye punishment.

"I was hopeful of getting freed when the higher court expressed willingness to relax the punishment if the aggrieved party agreed. But there was uncertainty since the Saudi citizen (whose eye was damaged in a scuffle with Naushad) refused to help initially," Naushad said.

Naushad, who was a worker in a petrol pump in Dammam before his life took a tragic turn, said he had not decided what to do next. "As far as I know, there is no legal or technical hitch in going back to Saudi Arabia. I have not decided anything," he said.

Naushad is meeting his daughter for the first time as she was born after his last visit to his home. The family later drove to their home at Anchal in Kollam district.