'Suspicious' Bangladesh woman's Indian husband absconding; dependent visa cannot be extended says HC
Bengaluru (PTI): The High Court of Karnataka has dismissed a petition filed by a Bangladeshi woman seeking extension of her stay in India.
The woman's Indian husband is absconding and without his consent for the dependent visa (X-1 visa) it cannot be extended. The HC also noted that her activities in India were suspicious as she was in constant touch with an organisation called SSG in Bangladesh which had connections with that country's military.
Between 2003 and 2005, the woman had worked in the Thailand Embassy office in Dhaka. The petition before the HC was filed by one Raktima Khanum, 46, which was heard by Justice M Nagaprasanna. The woman claimed to have fallen in love with one Janardhana Reddy, a resident of Bengaluru and an Indian citizen.
The two got married in December 2017 and the woman claimed that Reddy had converted to Islam. The couple lived in Chennai but soon their love floundered and the woman went back to Bangladesh as the tourist visa she was staying on had expired, she said.
When she applied for a visa again, it was converted to an entry visa -- a dependent visa -- which was valid till February 2020. She sought extension of the visa, and it was granted for six months as she was married to an Indian. The visa was again extended later till June 21, 2023.
When another extension was sought, the authorities demanded that she produce an undertaking/consent form the sponsor/parents/spouse as she was on a dependent visa.
She approached the high court in this regard. Her advocate contended that her husband is absconding and therefore she cannot submit a consent document.
The HC, however, said it cannot direct the authorities to extend the visa considering the facts of the case.
Dismissing the petition, the HC in its January 5 judgment said, "The power of the Government of India to expel nationals of other countries who overstay in the nation without any document is absolute and unfettered. Any indulgence shown to the petitioner, on any kind of sympathy, would be putting fetters on the discretion of the government, the FRRO and the Bureau of Immigration, more so in cases where there is even a semblance of threat to national security of any kind."
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Israel says rabbi who went missing in UAE was killed
Tel Aviv, Nov 24: Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”
The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.” There was no immediate comment from the UAE.
Zvi Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a Kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
The agreement has held through more than a year of soaring regional tensions unleashed by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel. But Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the the UAE.
Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, has also been threatening to retaliate against Israel after a wave of airstrikes Israel carried out in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.
Early Sunday, the UAE's state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan's disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being “missing and out of contact.”
“Specialised authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.
Netanyahu told a regular Cabinet meeting later Sunday that he was “deeply shocked” by Kogan's disappearance and death. He said he appreciated the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and said that ties between the two countries would continue to be strengthened.
Israel's largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for "their swift action." He said he trusts they “will work tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. It said he was last seen in Dubai. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners.
The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai's busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and the back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.
Kogan's wife, Rivky, is a US citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.
Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
