NRI brides trapped by faking rich bait

Young gullible girls of Indian origin — largely working professionals in Toronto, Vancouver and New York are being coaxed or trapped into marriage by young unemployed men, faking to be rich, from Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Hyderabad in pursuit of greener pastures. Cupid flies as soon as these men attain permanent residency. Some 70 such deserted newlyweds from Panchkula, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, settled in North America, are knocking the doors of Indian foreign ministry and have taken up the matter with Counsel General of Canada.

Considering the alarming rise in the cases coming to the National and State Commissions for Women, especially in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab, related to ‘NRI marriages’ the Union government is set to introduce a bill in the coming winter session of Parliament for more stern measures against Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands abandoning their wives in India. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had said on Wednesday that the Centre has already launched an institutional mechanism and the passports of 25 NRI men have been revoked recently for abandoning their wives in India.


This spells relief for some of the victims. Shilpa Aggarwal from Panchkula now settled in Toronto, is one of 70 such girls. “We have been pursuing cases for a long time. Things seem to have started moving now. In my case, the women commission has stepped in and asked the police to expedite the process. With intervention from Centre, state governments seem to have woken up. We hope this bill gets introduced soon,” says Aggarwal, whose husband is a Muslim.