A desperate escape by a defiant father to the UAE along with his own toddler daughter in violation of court orders has triggered an Interpol search for the baby at the behest of the CBI that is probing the incident.
The Interpol has issued a Yellow Notice for tracing the 2.5-year-old baby, Raina and is processing the request for issuance of a Red Corner Notice against Aman Lohia, the toddler’s father.
Meanwhile, the External Affairs Ministry has also issued a note verbale on September 9 to authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to not let Aman Lohia leave that country.
While Yellow Notices are issued by the Interpol on the request of member countries to locate missing persons, Red Corner Notices are a global request to arrest an absconder.
Aman, son of a noted businessman having family relations with a London-based global steel tycoon, was fighting a custody battle for his daughter Raina with his separated wife Kiran Kaur Lohia, a well-known dermatologist who owns a clinic in posh South Delhi area, in Delhi High Court.
Earlier, the High Court had handed over the custody of the child to the mother with a parenting plan according to which Aman could meet Raina for some hours on three days of every week. The court had also asked him to deposit his passport. But Aman acquired a passport from Commonwealth of Dominica, a Carribean country to flee from India as the HC order did not go down well with him who considered it as “gender bias of Indian courts towards women”.
Using the Dominica passport, Aman reached Dubai where “personal laws enjoin exclusive custody upon the father”, the High Court had noted in one of the proceedings.
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. From Bagdogra, they took a taxi to Kathmandu from where they flew to Dubai via a circuitous route to gulf cities including 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 Red Corner Notice against Aman and Mahato.
The agency has arrested the family confidant Pawan Kumar, upon his return from Dubai and he has been remanded to judicial custody by a designated court.