Child Taken By Father To Dubai Against Court Order Brought Back By CBI

A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials today brought back a toddler who was taken to Dubai by her father in an alleged violation of Delhi High Court order.

Three-year-old Raina was taken away by her father Aman Lohia amid a custody battle with his wife Kiran Kaur Lohia and directives of the court to not leave the country, officials said.

On the directions of the Supreme Court, a team of CBI officials had gone to Dubai where it coordinated with the local authorities to ensure safe return of the three-year-old girl and her father to Delhi.

The agency has informed the top court about its compliance action and will produce the child before it on Friday, the officials said. The child is in the care of the agency, they said.

The court had granted the girl's custody to the mother with a parenting plan according to which her father could meet Raina for some hours on three days a week. The court had 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 Mr 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. He used a passport of the Commonwealth of Dominica, a Caribbean country.

Considering "international ramifications", the court had handed over the probe to the CBI which had registered a case. The matter had reached to the top court through a petition filed against a court order.