Thiruvananthapuram, Dec. 8: A Kerala hospital has offered to restore vision for the Saudi who was allegedly blinded in one eye by Abdul Latif Naushad, a youth from the state.

The gesture by the Al-Salama Eye Hospital, in Malappuram, comes at a time when Saudi Arabia’s highest court has ordered Naushad’s eye to be gouged out and then be given to Naif Utheibi.

“We have the expertise and even Arabs come here for treatment. We are ready to bear all the expenses if that would spare the youth’s eye,” said A. Shamsudheen, the managing director of the hospital in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district.

The private hospital is an NRI venture with some 200 investors, 90 per cent of whom are from Saudi Arabia. Its chairman Mohammed Kutty is also employed in the kingdom.

Naushad, 34, has been in jail for the past three years. A native of Kollam district, he went to work in Saudi Arabia 10 years ago.

He was working in a store attached to a petrol station in Dammam where Utheibi had gone to buy a battery charger in April 2002. After sometime, the Saudi returned seeking a replacement for the article which he said was faulty.

Naushad told him he was not authorised to take back a sold item. An altercation ensued and Naushad allegedly hit Utheibi in the eye.

The Saudi police sent the Indian to jail. Last week, the apex court in Riyadh passed the judgment ordering one of Naushad’s eyes to be gouged out. He has appealed in the same court for a review of the judgment.

According to Shariat law, only a victim can pardon his assailant. But Utheibi has neither accepted the compensation of Rs 12 lakh offered by Naushad’s friends nor pardoned him.

Naushad, however, rang up his wife, Shuhaila, on Monday to say that Utheibi would show mercy.

The external affairs ministry is apparently seeking royal pardon for Naushad, the sole breadwinner of his family, comprising his wife, two children and aged parents.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Kerala MPs that he has asked junior foreign minister E. Ahmed to look into the matter. “He told us he would do everything to help the youth,” said Chengara Surendran, MP from Adoor.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy has urged Singh to convey the family’s appeal for pardon to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Azeez, who will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

Accompanied by relatives, Shuhaila met the chief minister today seeking his endorsement for the family’s clemency petition.

Shuhaila and Naushad were married eight years ago and the couple has two children, a five-year-old son and a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Naushad was jailed a few days before his daughter was born.

Another Keralite, Sijo Jose, who was in the US army’s custody in Iraq for three months, has returned home. He was released two days ago.