Justice K. Lakshman of the High Court has directed the CID Additional Director General DG incharge of NRI affairs and the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to restate their request for extraditing a misbehaving husband, who works in US as a doctor.
US officials refused to extradite the Indian doctor because it is not a dual criminality. Dual Criminality means both countries should recognise the crime. A crime in matrimonial disputes in India was not a crime under American Law. Dowry harassment is a crime in India but not in US. So the Judge directed CID officials to properly brief the officials of US through MEA with all available evidence and to furnish relevant documents that might attract normal criminal provisions.
The Judge made this order while disposing of a petition filed by Gulam Afzal of Hyderabad, who wants his son-in-law, New Jersey based doctor, to be extradited and punished her for the harassment done to his daughter.
Afzal had performed his daughter’s marriage in October 2007 in Hyderabad with a doctor from Gulbarga, paying him an enormous dowry.
Afzal’s daughter was an engineer in US. The husband and wife lived in India for some months. Amid this period, the husband started harassing his wife for more dowry and manhandling her. As she was already working in US and with the hope that he would change in the future, she helped him to secure (H4) visa, but the things did not improve and the husband continued his harassment. She returned to her father and filed a criminal case against her husband in Hyderabad.
Representing the Union Government, Additional Solicitor General explained that they forwarded all the details to US authorities in 2011. But the US judiciary had listed a batch of similar cases in 2011 and they refused the requests for extradition them as there was lack of dual criminality in these cases. The doctor husband was one among them.
According to US officials there is dual criminality, it is the duty of the CID to satisfy the US officials with the required evidence, the Judge said.
