Habeas Corpus: Supreme Court issues notice to High Commissioner of Malaysia in woman's plea to trace missing husband

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the High Commissioner of Malaysia in a habeas corpus petition filed by a wife seeking to trace her husband who had gone to Malaysia for a job and has been missing since 2015..A Bench of Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi sought a response from the High Commissioner and the State of Rajasthan on a plea by one Raj Kumari, who alleged that no action was taken on her representations to the Prime Minister's Office and the External Affairs Ministry, and her complaints to the police..The plea filed through Advocate Anuj Bhandari pointed out that the Rajasthan High Court dismissed her habeas corpus petition on the ground that the police is investigating the matter, though nothing has been done for the past six years since the registration of the first information report (FIR).As per the petition, one Narendra Kumar Pachori had taken money from the petitioner's husband Vijay Singh on the pretext of getting him lucrative jobs abroad. After taking money on multiple occasions, the petitioner's husband was finally sent to Malaysia for a job in October 2014 on the promise of a monthly salary of ₹45,000.The plea alleged that one Lakhvinder Singh then met her husband in Malaysia and started siphoning off his money. Later, the husband and his brother-in-law started receiving threatening messages asking for payment of ₹4 lakh to a bank account provided.The husband and three others were kidnapped by five Indian men in 2015 and locked in a room. One of them managed to escape and filed a police complaint at Manjung district in Malaysia, the plea stated.The petitioner then filed a police complaint with the local police in Rajasthan in 2016 for kidnapping and cheating, but there has been no progress till date, it was contended. She then approached the High Court, which dismissed the plea, leading to the present appeal before the top court. .It was her argument that the High Court wrongly dismissed the petition since the pendency of an FIR for kidnapping and cheating cannot render a habeas corpus petition non-maintainable. "The petitioner is not even aware if her husband Vijay Singh is dead or alive. It is the duty of the Union of India to ensure that its citizens are accounted for particularly outside India," the petition stated.But in the present case, the Union government has adopted a casual attitude even though her husband has been missing for 6 years, it was submitted.