NRIs Corner

An Indian national in the United Arab Emirates has committed suicide by hanging himself with a plastic cable in an under-construction building in Sharjah, media reports said.

The body of the man, who is identified only by the initials of his name KR, 43, from India, was found hanging from the ceiling in the Al-Qraan area at 6 a.m. Sunday, the Gulf News reported.

Workers at the construction site detected the body first.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident and the body was sent to the forensic laboratory for an autopsy.(IANS)

In the wake of the arrest of India’s Deputy Consul General in New York on Thursday, the US on Saturday said the Indian Deputy Consul General has immunity from jurisdiction only for her actions in an official capacity and hoped that the incident will not affect bilateral ties with India, which has strongly reacted to the treatment meted to the diplomat.

Following India issuing a strong demarche to the US Ambassador in New Delhi and forcefully taking up the matter, the State Department said it was handling the issue.

Two more Indian nationals were charged with rioting in a Singapore court Saturday, bringing to 33 the total number of those arraigned for the Dec 8 riots in this city-state.

Palanivel Dhasmohan, 27, and Karuppiah Chandrasekar, 31, are accused of being part of an unlawful assembly and throwing pieces of concrete at police officers, among other charges, following the death of an Indian worker in the Little India neighbourhood Dec 8.

Honeymoon murder victim Anni Dewani’s father has slammed the Britain’s legal system for not being able to punish her culprit husband, who is enjoying his life as he avoids facing trial for her death.

Vinod Hindocha lashed out after a court again failed to reach a decision over whether Shrien Dewani should be sent to stand trial at the scene of the crime in South Africa, Express.co.uk reports.

The chase for Microsoft’s CEO has seen many business chiefs enter and exit the potential list, except the software maker’s cloud computing executive Satya Nadella, who has reportedly held his candidature in the lead position.

As Steve Ballmer takes bow out of the company, potential candidatures for his chair included Ford’s Alan Mulally, Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf and Nokia’s former executive president Stephen Elop.

According to Tech Crunch, Indian-origin Satya Nadella has managed to remain a leading candidate, as others fell in the stakes.

The UK is introducing a series of tougher new tests that immigrants will have to clear before they can claim state benefits.

For the first time, claimants will be challenged to demonstrate their proficiency in English and to prove they were genuinely looking for work before they came to Britain.

From next Wednesday, foreign-born benefit claimants will face more questions from a list of 200, in lengthier interviews.

The rules apply to all overseas nationals and to Britons returning after living abroad.

A British court has sentenced a man to jail for life for killing his Indian-origin employer.

Amarjit Singh Rai, 41 and a father of three, died after being slashed across his throat and then bludgeoned on his head by his 27-year-old employee Fausto Graciano May 2 in a passageway in Edgbaston in the British city of Birmingham, the Birmingham Mail reported Friday.

The victim was the owner of the Pushkar restaurant on the city’s Broad Street and Cafe Guzan in the Mailbox. Brazilian-born Graciano worked as a bartender at Pushkar and Cafe Guzan.

An Indian-origin man in New Zealand was sentenced to 12 months in prison and disqualified from driving for 12 months for abandoning a 11-month-old boy alone on the roadside after stealing a car.

Charanjit Singh, 31, appeared before Judge Philip Moran in the Invercargill District Court in New Zealand’s South Island to face seven charges, six of which related to stealing a $58,000 Mazda CX9 car and one for abandoning the infant, the Otago Daily Times reported Friday.

A former treasurer of a Gujarati community non-profit association in the US has been indicted for allegedly stealing $85,844 over a more than six-year period from its bank accounts.

Girishcha Patel, 59, a resident of Franklin township of Somerset county in New Jersey and a former treasurer of the Federation of Gujarati Associations in North America (FOGANA) is accused of misappropriating the funds from the bank accounts of the association, the Star Ledger reported Thursday.

An Indian man forged a visa, passport and driving licence to rent a car to smuggle alcohol, a court heard here.

The 33-year-old man, identified by his initials NM, was caught when his alcohol-loaded car met with an accident after which he fled from the spot, The National reported Thursday.

The defendant rented a Nissan Tida car for five months from a car rental company Aug 14 last year by using fake copies of a passport and a visit visa as well as a driving licence as a guarantee.

Manhattan’s US Attorney Preetinder Singh “Preet” Bharara, dubbed “Sheriff of Wall Street” by Time magazine, has struck again with the arrest of a senior Indian diplomat on charges of visa fraud and exploiting her housekeeper.

An Indian facing extradition to Australia for killing a teenager while drunk five years ago has pleaded with the Indian government for help.

Puneet Puneet made a brief appearance at New Delhi court for the extradition process and is expected to back in court on Friday.

According to news.com.au, the 24-year-old, who was a hospitality student, said he did not want to go back to Australia because he has no resources to fight and he is scared.

Punnet pleaded again and again to the Indian government to come forward and help him.

One of India’s senior diplomats was arrested in New York Thursday for alleged visa fraud and exploitation of her domestic help leading to expression of “strong concern” by the Indian embassy in Washington.

Devyani Khobragade, 39, India’s Deputy consul general in New York was charged with one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements, which carry maximum sentences of 10 years and five years in prison, respectively.

Ignoring India’s concerns, the Obama administration has thrown its full weight behind the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the US Senate, arguing that it would benefit immigrants from countries like India and China.

The White House made its position clear on the contentious H-1B provisions of Senate version of the immigration bill in a fact sheet prepared for the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community (AAPI), which includes the influential Indian American community.

India has emerged as the second largest supplier of higher education students for Australian universities, according to latest data.

Indian students to undertake higher education in Australia have witnessed growth this year with total enrolments reaching over 15,800 during the period of January-October as compared to 12,062 last year.

The data indicated that even if the total enrolments dropped, India emerged as the second top supplier of international students for Australia.

An Indian national was found dead Wednesday in his one-bedroom apartment in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates(UAE).

Gautam Bandopadhyay, 53, from the Indian city of Kolkata, was found dead at the Tiger Building in Al Nahda where he had moved just two months ago and was living alone, Xpress reported.

His colleagues contacted the police after he did not answer their calls for several days.

A three-year-old Indian boy was killed by a speeding car while boarding a car along with his mother in Saudi Arabia.

Abdul Rahman Mohammed, from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, was pronounced dead on the spot, the Arab News reported Thursday.

The family of the victim works in Yanbu in the Al Madinah province of western Saudi Arabia, 300 km northwest of Jeddah.

The driver of the car that ran over the boy was a Syrian national.

Abdul Rahman’s body is being kept at the Royal Commission Hospital in the city.

Devyani Khobragade, Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate here was today arrested for allegedly presenting fraudulent documents in support of a visa application for an Indian national employed by her, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said.

An Indian-origin couple will become the UK’s oldest married couple as they celebrate their 88th wedding anniversary this week.

Karam Chand and his wife Katari said that their marriage is a “real blessing”, and to celebrate another year of married life is like a “dream come true”, the Daily Express reported.

The 108-year-old husband and 101-year-old wife were married in India at a Sikh ceremony on December 11, 1925, when the country was under British Rule, and moved to Bradford in 1965. (ANI)

Singapore is set to charge 24 Indians for taking part in the city”s first riot in more than 40 years. The riots took place in Singapore after an Indian construction worker was struck and killed by a private bus in a district known as Little India.

Madhu Narasiah, 35, left his well paying job as a software engineer in Boston, U.S. and came to India to volunteer for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nearly two months ago. Today, he is happy that he and dozens of NRIs who had come to work as volunteers, were able to contribute in ensuring that the new party made a mark in Indian politics.

“I have been a volunteer since India Against Corruption (IAC) days and was really enthused with IAC taking a political turn… I felt we may not get another opportunity to bring this change,” Madhu told IANS.

The Singapore Police have arrested 27 people after hundreds of protesters took part in a riot sparked by the death of an Indian national.

A consular officer is reported to have met jailed Indian merchant navy captain Sunil James and two sailors in the West African nation of Togo on Friday.

The meeting took place even as efforts are on to secure James” release so that he can join his family in Mumbai to perform the last rites of his 11-month son who died earlier this week.

James has been under arrest in Togo since July 31 on suspicion of aiding pirates who had attacked and looted his Marshall Islands-flagged MT Ocean Centurion ship on July 16.

Oscar award winner Resul Pookutty, actors Mammootty, Mohanlal, space scientist G. Madhavan Nair and a host of Kerala’s well known personalities from different fields will be honoured at an event in Dubai Dec 13.

The event is being organised by Gulf Madhyamam, a leading Malayalam daily, to commemorate the granting of classical status to Malayalam language in May this year.

Asians are reportedly 11 times more likely to be stopped at British airports and ports compared to whites, a new study has revealed.

The analysis by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) suggests that stereotyping rather than intelligence may be a key factor in use of counter-terrorism powers under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.