india

Updated: Feb 27, 2020 15:54 IST

Industrialist Aman Lohia, who had fled to Dubai with his three-year-old daughter around seven months ago in violation of court order has been brought back to India on Thursday said officials familiar with the developments.

Lohia had fled the country with his daughter and a couple of confidants in disagreement with a Delhi High Court order giving his daughter’s custody to his estranged wife, Kiran Lohia.

Aman claimed the order showed a “gender bias of Indian courts towards women”.

On August 24, 2019, when the daughter went to see Aman as per the parenting plan approved by the court, he took her along with family confidant Pawan Kumar and maid Shiuratia Debi Mahato to Bagdogra.

From Bagdogra, they took a taxi to Kathmandu, from where they went to Dubai via a circuitous route to gulf cities including Doha using a passport acquired from the Commonwealth of Dominica, a country in the Carribean. He hoped to obtain his daughter’s custody as per Dubai laws.

The Delhi high court handed over Aman’s escape case to the CBI which obtained a Yellow Notice against Aman and Mahato from the Interpol.

The external affairs ministry also issued a note verbale on September 9, 2019 UAE authorities to not let Aman leave the country.

The court had 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.

Aman’s lawyers had filed an affidavit on September 4, 2019, claiming he was a “victim of gender bias” of the courts and that it was the “love for his daughter” which directed his actions.

The HC had rejected his arguments and said that Lohia had taken the law into his own hands, become a judge, jury and an executioner and was now trying to adorn the role of a victim.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet against Aman last December. It also named his mother Meena Lohia, accomplice Pawan Kumar and maid Shiuratia Debi Mahto.