CBI brings back child taken to Dubai by her father in defiance of Delhi HC order

The CBI on Thursday brought back a three-year-old girl from Dubai who was taken there by her father in alleged violation of Delhi High Court orders, officials said. The girl's father, Aman Lohia, had taken Baby Raina to Dubai amid a custody battle with his wife Kiran Kaur Lohia in the high court that had asked him to deposit his passport with authorities to prevent him from leaving the country, they said.

The Supreme Court, which was apprised of the matter through a petition against a high court order in the case, had directed the CBI to visit Dubai to bring back the girl to India. A team of CBI officials had recently gone to Dubai where it coordinated with local authorities to ensure the safe return of the girl and her father.

After the team arrived on Thursday morning, the CBI rushed to the apex court and informed it about its compliance action, the officials said. The girl will be produced before the Supreme Court on Friday, they said, adding that the child is at her mother's home under the agency's care.

The dramatic developments of Thursday were a culmination of a six-month long trail of a defiant father who in a desperate move escaped to Dubai with his daughter claiming he was a "victim of gender bias" of courts and that it was the "love for his daughter" which directed his actions. Aman Lohia, son of a noted businessman, was fighting a custody battle for his daughter Raina in the high court after separating from his wife Kiran Kaur Lohia, a Delhi-based dermatologist.

The high court had granted Raina's custody to the mother with a parenting plan, according to which, Aman Lohia could meet his daughter for some hours on three days of a week. The court also asked him to deposit his passport, which he did, the officials said. On August 24 last year, when the girl had come to meet Aman Lohia as per the parenting plan, he took her along with family confidant Pawan Kumar and maid Shiuratia Debi to Dubai using a circuitous route via Nepal and other gulf countries.

Considering "international ramifications", the Delhi High Court had handed over the probe to the CBI which had registered a case. The Interpol had issued a 'Yellow Notice' for the girl on a CBI request, the officials said.

Yellow Notices are issued by the Interpol on the request of member countries to locate missing persons, they said. The CBI had also filed a charge sheet on December 19 last year before a special court against Aman Lohia, his mother Meena Lohia, alleged accomplice Pawan Kumar and maid Shiuratia Debi Mahto, they said.

The agency has invoked Indian Penal Code provisions pertaining to criminal conspiracy, kidnapping from India and kidnapping from lawful guardianship among others against the businessman. Aman Lohia had 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.

The high court had termed Aman 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".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)