Man escapes country with toddler daughter, Interpol search begins
NEW DELHI: The Interpol has issued a Yellow Notice for a twoand-a-half-year-old girl on the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation after her father took her to the United Arab Emirates in violation of court orders.
The global agency has issued a Yellow Notice for the girl, Raina, on a request of the central bureau of investigation (CBI), while the process for a Red Corner Notice against Aman Lohia, the father, has been initiated by the agency, officials said.
The External Affairs Ministry also issued a note verbale on September 9 to authorities in the UAE to not let Aman leave the country.
Yellow Notices are issued by the Interpol on the request of member countries to locate missing persons, while Red Corner Notices are a global request to arrest an absconder.
Aman, son of a noted businessman, was fighting a custody battle for his daughter Raina after separating from his wife Kiran Kaur Lohia, a Delhi-based dermatologist, in the Delhi high court.
The high court had granted the girl’s custody to the mother with a parenting plan according to which Aman could meet
Raina for some hours on three days a week. The court also asked him to deposit his passport, which he did, officials said.
Aman, however, called the court order a “gender bias of Indian courts towards women”.
He allegedly decided to flee to Dubai, where “personal laws enjoin exclusive custody upon the father”, using a passport acquired from Caribbean country the Commonwealth of Dominica.
On August 24 this year, when Raina had come to meet Aman as per the parenting plan, he took her along with family confidant Pawan Kumar and maid Shiuratia Debi Mahato to board a flight to Bagdogra with the Delhi police on their trail.
From Bagdogra, they took a taxi to Kathmandu from where they went to Dubai via a circuitous route to gulf cities includ
YELLOW NOTICES ARE ISSUED BY THE INTERPOL ON THE REQUEST OF MEMBER COUNTRIES TO LOCATE MISSING PERSONS, WHILE RED CORNER NOTICES ARE A GLOBAL REQUEST TO ARREST AN ABSCONDER
ing Doha, officials said.
Considering “international ramifications”, the Delhi high court handed over the probe to the CBI which has registered a case and started the process for a RCN against Aman and Mahato.
The agency arrested Pawan Kumar upon his return from Dubai and he has been sent to judicial court.
The court has termed Lohia’s escape with his daughter on a Dominican Passport and refusal to subject himself to the jurisdiction of the Indian legal system as a “contempt of court”.
In response to the notice issued by the high court, Aman, through his lawyers, filed an affidavit on September 4, stating that he was a “victim of gender bias” of the courts and that it was the “love for his daughter” which directed his actions.
Rejecting the arguments, the high court noted that “after having taken the law into his own hands” and having decided “to become a judge, jury and an executioner rolled into one...Aman Lohia...is now trying to adorn the role of a victim/martyr!”
“Nothing can be further from the truth,” the court had said.
The high court said removing Raina from the jurisdiction of the court interferes with and obstructs the due course of justice and tends to lower its authority.