Rogue NRI hubbies may lose properties
FEB6, 2018
against Bank of Baroda’sb operations in South Africa in stories published last week NEW DELHI: The government is considering crucial changes in criminal law that will allow for the confiscation of the property of NRI men for deserting their wives and not responding to repeated notices issued to them, Union women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi said on Monday.
The WCD ministry is also writing to the Union home ministry ( MHA) to i ndefinitely increase the time limit for reporting cases of child sexual abuse including molestation from the current rule that says this has to be done within three years of commission of the offence, as first reported by Hindustan Times on February 1.
WCD secretary Rakesh Srivastava said the ministry has sought an amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) that will allow a summons hosted on the website of ministry of external affairs (MEA) to be treated as “deemed to have been served.”
“If three such notices have been served and the person does not appear, it will be assumed that he is evading summons and will be treated as an absconder. The enforcement agencies will be authorised to attach the property of such persons and their families. The MEA has already written to MHA proposing the changes to CRPC ,” Srivastava said at a press conference.
Currently, a woman has to file a complaint with police, which write to embassies. The embassy then tries to serve the summons. NEW DELHI: Union Information & Broadcasting minister Smriti Irani on Monday hinted the government was considering a news channel for the international market, but said that no decision had been taken so far.
“The timing is right to do something like this, and the market also seems to be ready,” Irani said in an interview to HT.
The minister said the government had no intention of muzzling voices, and suggested that fake news was not a big concern. “Technology is a great leveller… Fake news gets called out by social media very well, and gets called out with evidence.”