IndiaPost.com - Innocent NRI men victims of marital fraud

NEW DELHI: An alarmingly large number of troubled NRI marriages have been ending up in criminal proceedings against innocent NRI men and their families. Many successful NRI men have been falling prey to this extortion and blackmail racket that is based on the easy to misuse dowry laws due to their lopsided and gender biased nature, and where those misusing the law know that they will not be punished.

Several NRIs and their family members in India have been jailed, NRI children have been abducted to India and forced to cut off contact from their family in the USA while the NRI fathers sweat it out for many years in the Indian courts in an attempt to obtain that elusive justice.

Unscrupulous Indian women who want to gain immigration or education benefits for themselves or their families have duped thousands of NRI men into sham marriages and many have become the victims of a huge extortion racket based on the misuse of IPC 498A (the dowry law).

Here is how it works. The girl and her parents lure a NRI scapegoat into marriage. After securing her immigration benefits, financial demands are made, either directly or indirectly under the garb of "helping" the wife's family.

If the NRI husband refuses to comply with the wife's demands or if the marriage goes bad, a false dowry case is promptly registered in India against the NRI husband and in-laws. A mere complaint by the NRI wife is sufficient for getting the NRI's parents and other relatives incarcerated in India. Then a hefty sum of money is demanded, generally to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The hapless NRI husband, completely unaware of the existence of these lopsided laws in India, is baffled and often gives in to the demand of the wife and her family in order to get the false cases withdrawn and secure the release of his relatives.

A worse fate is in store for those righteous ones who refuse to give in to this extortion. They can not go to India to prove their innocence because as soon as they land in India, they are arrested, their passports are confiscated and they are asked to remain in India till the conclusion of the false dowry case (the expected length of trial is 7-8 years).

If the NRI husband decides not to go to India, the Indian law enforcement machinery declares him a criminal, revokes his passport and issues an Interpol Red Corner Notices (meant for international terrorists and hardened criminals) against them.

Either way, the innocent NRI husband and his family are devastated, merely based on a false complaint, without an iota of evidence being required to file or prosecute. If you think that the occurrence of such abuse is infrequent, consider this - The website 498a.org has received more than 700 complaints, many are alumni of IITs, IIMs and Indian Medical Colleges, in the past one and a half years.

Chances are that if any of your Indian friends is going through a divorce / is recently divorced, this legal provision has either been threatened or misused against him by his wife / ex-wife and her family to get more favorable financial terms in divorce or child custody.

Child custody is another thorny issue wherein countless NRI children have been abducted to India by vengeful spouses after they lose child custody during the divorce in their country of residence. Hundreds of traumatized NRI fathers have been trying to get in touch with their children, sometimes for more than five years after being awarded sole custody of their NRI children.

Often, after losing the child custody case, the abusive NRI mother abducts the child to India, while the father has to deal with an unsympathetic political and legal system, and ends up running from pillar to post to get his children back.

It is also interesting to note that while criminal proceedings are initiated against the husband and his family in India, no cases are filed in the US or the country of residence. The reason is because the penalty for perjury in western nations is enforced stringently, while in India, it is very easy to file a false complaint and the judicial process takes it own time, which results in prolonged harassment and agony for the innocent people who are accused of heinous crimes.

This "jumping of jurisdiction" to the favorable one, mostly to India, has been successfully employed by hundreds of vengeful women to harass innocent families. Several organizations have been trying to engage the MOIA in discussions about these issues in an attempt to find a peaceful solution.

Despite several meetings with and representations to the top MOIA officials and the MOIA minister, Valayar Ravi, himself. MOIA has persistently refused to acknowledge the anguish and suffering of the aggrieved husbands and fathers. Efforts to notify MOIA about our concerns have been met with extreme resentment and hostility.

According to a report, when Vayalar Ravi was asked to comment on the desperate pleas for help by innocent NRI husbands, he had the following advice - "My advice to them is: Sort out differences and live a happy life. Otherwise, only courts can decide on such matters".

Ironically, this callous and insensitive remark was followed by a "fervent appeal" to the NRIs asking them to invest in India. But, such contradiction is not unexpected from the Indian politicians, who, barring certain exceptions, are not particularly known to be committed towards development or progress for even the populace they are supposed to serve.

Misinformation spread by the MOIA, NCW and MWCD The anti-NRI approach becomes all too evident if one carefully examines the fresh legislations being proposed by the MOIA. Let us consider the issue of failed and fraudulent NRI marriages.

A lot of hype is being generated by the various Indian Government Ministries, notably - MOIA, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) and the National Commission for Women (NCW), over the issue of the abandoned brides. Claims have been made in the national and international media that NRI husbands have abandoned 30,000 brides.

However, while answering a question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister acknowledged that his ministry has received only 100 (hundred) complaints. Tough legislation is being proposed in order to punish NRI men and impose various conditions on them prior to allowing them marry a woman from India.

Interestingly, despite the reported cases of marriage fraud by some NRI women, no such conditions will apply to NRI women who marry in India. Furthermore, no protection against marital fraud by women from India is being granted to NRI men.

It is obvious that MOIA is under pressure from the NCW and MWCD. Meanwhile, the trend in India to extort and blackmail innocent NRI husbands their families continues unabated. Now, for the hundreds of harassed NRIs and their families, the allusion to India does not bring forth the taste of local delicacies or the sweet memories of childhood. Instead, it brings to the surface tremendous feelings of loathing, despair, and disgust.

Emotionally scarred, financially destroyed and socially ostracized, many NRIs have decided to completely cut off their ties from India - the so-called homeland they blame for their miseries. Unless some urgent measures are undertaken to rectify the situation, thousands of other NRIs will follow suit - helped in no less part by the incompetence, prejudice and apathy of the very Ministry that is supposed to watch out for their interests.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) organized the much-hyped Pravasi Bhartiya Divas from Jan 7 to Jan 9 this year. Ostensibly, it is a platform for celebrating the success of the Indian diaspora abroad and for supposedly connecting them to their roots in India.

Unfortunately, it has become a platform for unabashedly demanding investments from NRIs and for demonizing NRIs, often in the same breath. While the sole purpose of creating the MOIA was for it to act as a liaison between the widespread Indian diaspora and their homeland, the MOIA, regretfully, seems to be pursing a covert agenda of marginalizing and isolating the NRIs, and is interested in the NRIs only for their wealth.

The indifferent attitude of the MOIA is clearly reflected by it turning a blind eye towards the family problems faced by NRIs.