NRIs Corner

A stolen car may have been involved in an Indian delivery van driver’s mysterious disappearance in Australia, a police officer said Friday.

Shiva Chauhan, 27, went missing after carrying out his regular deliveries May 1 last year with his locked van found next day in Keysborough, a suburb of Melbourne.

“Our investigations suggest a stolen Toyota Camry may have been involved in Shiva’s disappearance. That vehicle is still outstanding and we’d like to locate it as it may afford evidence in relation to his disappearance,” Herald Sun quoted detective inspector Jill Dyson as saying.

A Scotland court has ordered an Indian-origin former bank worker, who stole 120,000 pounds (about $181,000) from a client, to pay back just one pound because she has no assets, media reported.

Satnam Kaur, 31, was working as a customer advisor at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Albyn Place, Aberdeen, when she took the money and transferred the large sums home to India in 2011, BBC reported Thursday.

Kaur was jailed for a year at Aberdeen Sheriff Court last year after being found guilty.

An NRI, settled in Dubai, was found dead at hotel here today where he was staying during his visit to attend a friend’s wedding.

The deceased was identified as Sunil Virmani (35), who had done MBA from Australia and settled in Dubai.

On January 27, he had come to attend the marriage of his friend being held at a hotel. He was staying in room number 1008 with another friend Nikunj and last night, a group of friends had a liquor party, police said.

An Indian woman died and three people were seriously injured when the car they were travelling in hit an electric pole in Oman’s Sur city, a media report said Thursday.

Khadeeja died of burn injuries in the accident near Ras Al Hadd Wednesday. The driver of the car, a woman co-passenger and Khadeeja’s son were battling for life in hospital, Times of Oman reported.

It added that Indian social workers in Sur were coordinating with police to prepare the papers required to send the woman’s body back to India.

(IANS)

A court in Qatar has given a 10-year jail sentence to an Indian man for killing a colleague, a fellow Indian national, according to a media report.

The Primary Court in Doha Wednesday also ordered the 44-year-old Indian accused to pay a blood money of 200,000 Qatari riyals (around $55,000) to the kith and kin of the 26-year-old victim, Gulf Times reported.

The accused, an air-conditioning mechanic, killed his fellow worker in April last year after an altercation at their company accommodation in Al Wukair area of Doha.

An Indian-origin anaesthetist is among five medical personnel who face a multi-million dollar lawsuit over the death of American actress and comedienne Joan Rivers.

The lawsuit was filed in the New York state supreme court by Rivers’s daughter Melissa against New York clinic Yorkville Endoscopy, the Frontier Healthcare, which has a stake in the ownership of the clinic, Rivers’s personal physician Gail Korovin, Dr Lawrence Cohen, anaesthetists Renuka Bankulla, Robert Koniuta and Suzanne Scarola.

A 44-year-old Indian-origin physician here has pleaded guilty to a USD 83,000 health care fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison and about USD 350,000 fine.

Mahesh Kuthuru pleaded guilty to defrauding federal insurance programme Medicare from 2010 till 2011 during his practice at a city clinic.

He admitted that he submitted bills to Medicare which falsely reflected that he had personally provided or directly supervised other licensed medical personnel providing treatment or services to patients.

On the spot counseling, registration, admission process, discounts, scholarship offers and advise on visa application marked the seventh Higher Education Fair & Career Guidance Program organized by Indian Youth Welfare Association (IYWA) at Consulate General of India premises here in Jeddah. Confusion, queries and doubts were cleared while illustration of options available in their subject of choice by renowned University representatives in Higher Education brought respite to Parents and Student community.

Australian authorities have cancelled an Indian restaurant’s right to recruit foreign workers after several breaches of migration law, media reported Monday.

The well-known eatery in Melbourne, which immigration authorities have refused to name, was fined A$15,300 (about $12,000) last year for various offences, including underpaying foreign staff and failing to keep records, the Herald Sun reported.

The eatery was barred from bringing workers on skilled 457 visas after further breaches were discovered this month.

While Republic Day is an annual delight for Indians, for some of the Americans who attended the parade today, the occasion turned out to be an American delight, and they expressed hope that US President Barack Obama’s visit would strengthen ties between the two countries.

John Mathew from New York who attended the ceremonial parade for the firs time was happy to be part of the audience.

Despite freezing cold, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne joined Indo-Canadians to celebrate India’s 66th Republic Day and commended the country’s economic and technological advances.

“On January 26, 1950, the constitution of India came into effect, proclaiming India to be a sovereign, democratic republic. With each Republic day, we are minded of the impressive strides India has made since this pivotal date,” the Ontario Premier said.

A woman in the US after going through the take-away at a Burger King joint discovered that instead of her order of sweet tea and junior spicy chicken sandwich, she had got a bag full of cash.

But instead of keeping the money —- totalling USD 2,631 -— Janelle Jones, of Rochester, came back to the restaurant
with her husband and returned it.

Jones had ordered the drink and sandwich at the drive- through and while she was driving home, she discovered that
the sandwich bag was actually full of cash, and there was no food inside.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Indian sociologist Saraswathi Menon to a panel that will review peacebuilding activities.

Menon, a former lecturer at Madras University, has extensive experience in women’s and development issue. She has been the director of the Policy Division of UN-Women, the UN body for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and the director of the UN Development Program’s Evaluation Office. Her other UNDP assignments included postings in Mongolia and Nepal.

She has a doctorate in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.

With an estimated wealth of nearly 14 billion dollars, India-born Hinduja brothers have now emerged as the only British names on the list of world’s top 80 billionaires dominated by Americans.

Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja emerged as the 66th richest in the world, as part of an Oxfam study released here at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The figures, based on the definitive rich list compiled by ‘Forbes’ in March 2014 and the data from investment bank Credit Suisse indicates that the London-based entrepreneurs are now the richest Britons in the world.

A study by three Indian-origin researchers has revealed that successful small firms study competitors, network with other firms and allow their employees to learn from the developed markets to go from “zero to hero” in a short time.

“There are big benefits in encouraging citizens to study and work in developed markets, gaining education and experience to become future leaders whose knowledge can drive growth,” added the study that compared business data from India and Britain across a 10-year period.

Nearly one-third of the 40 high school seniors named finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search 2015, America’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science and math competition, are of Indian origin.

The finalists receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC from March 5 to 11 to compete for more than $1 million in awards from the Intel Foundation.

Run by the Society for Science & the Public, the contest recognises the most promising young US innovators creating the technologies and solutions that will that will make people’s lives better.

A 26-year-old Indian waiter set his ex-girlfriend’s shoe and bed on fire after she broke up with him in October last year.

The waiter, identified with his initial as AR, admitted that he got drunk before he trespassed into his Filipina ex-girlfriend’s residence and set her shoe and bed on fire because she ditched him, Gulf News reported.

“I did it but I was too drunk and not aware of what I did. I was not even aware that I had started a fire,” argued A.R. when he entered his plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance Tuesday.

An Indian-origin maid allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the 14th floor of a high rise building after attacking her employer with a hammer over an employment-related dispute.

The incident came to light on Monday after police found the body of Palwinder Kaur lying on the floor of the high rise building where she worked. She was later pronounced dead at the scene by para-medics.

Palwinder worked at a house on the 14th floor of the Bedok Reservoir View apartments in Eastern suburbs of the city, police said.

At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reaching out to the Indian diaspora, some NRIs are claiming they even dread the idea of visiting the country of their origin because of what many of them call “demonic matrimonial laws”.

From their passports being impounded to losing their jobs after being stuck in India, at the receiving end of the matrimonial laws, a host of Indian men from across Australia, Britain and the US, as also Europe have now started support groups to counsel each other on how to tackle the issue.

An eminent Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist has been presented with the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr Award in recognition of his contribution to the legacy of the great leader through his efforts in international service and civil engagement.

Azamgarh-born Frank Islam was given the annual award yesterday by Harry Johnson president of the Memorial Foundation for working to keep the “dream alive.”

Noting that there is an “indelible connection” between Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, Islam said he was proud and humbled to have received the award.

Four new envoys Friday presented their credentials to President Pranab Mukherjee and of them, two were persons of Indian-origin – the US ambassador and the Canadian high commissioner.

Richard Rahul Verma is the first American of Indian-origin to occupy the post, while Nadir Patel is the first Canadian of Indian-origin to do so.

Both have impressive credentials and come with considerable diplomatic and administrative experience, an indication of the importance the India posting has become in world capitals.

A festival to educate youngsters on the rich culture of Kerala was organised for almost 10,000 Indian expatriate families near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The festival was marked by exceptionally attractive events like presentations of Kerala’s traditional dances and
other art forms by budding kids.

The festival was held to mark the conclusion of a series of programs organised by Malarvadi Baalasangam in 2014
to create awareness among expatriate kids on Kerala’s unique culture, language, literature, political landscape and social

Asserting that he didn’t believe in hyphenated identities, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has said that his parents came to the US from India four decades ago to become Americans and not Indian-Americans.

He invoked his ethnic heritage to make a call for immigrant assimilation and called people who talked about skin pigmentation as the “most dim-witted lot” around.

“My parents came in search of the American Dream, and they caught it.

Indian-American Sam Singh, a two-term legislature, has been appointed as the Democratic Floor Leader in the Michigan State Assembly in the US. This is his first term as the Democratic Floor Leader.

Republicans form the majority in the State. “My position works very closely with the Republican floor leader to make sure, as we discuss policy, that ideas from both sides of the aisle are being heard, and work closely with my Democratic colleagues to make sure our ideas and voices are heard here at the Capitol,” 43-year-old Singh was quoted as saying by the local The State News.

In a first for the community in the state, an Indian-American entrepreneur has been appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources in Maryland State Cabinet.

Maryland Governor-elect Larry Hogan has announced to appoint Sam Malohtra as his pick to head the Department of Human Resources.

Malhotra, founder and CEO of Subsystem Technologies, a defense and safety company, had previously served in Governor Robert L Ehrlich’s Administration in a volunteer capacity on Maryland Commission for Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.