Bacchu Bhai, a fifty year old US NRI woman was intercepted by the Mumbai Customs with commercial quantities of banned sex toys, expensive lingerie, kinky CD games and over Rs.6 lakh worth of jewellery.

Ms Bacchu who flew to Mumbai for her daughter's wedding claimed that the items were for personal use and that she was unaware of the law that restricts carrying sex toys into the country.

She was handed over to the Air Intelligence Unit and booked under a section of the Indian Customs Act and her goods were seized. She was later released but will be called in for further investigation.

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Deepthi Valluri 25, was arrested after she cheated scores of NRI men into believing she would marry them.

The smart lady cheat went by a number of aliases and put into operation a modus operandi that was near genius in its simplicity and potency.

Deepthi created multiple profiles of herself on a number of matrimonial websites targeting NRIs She is a good looking woman and had little trouble attracting the hopeful grooms. Even divorcees and widowers were fair game for the woman who listed herself as a doctor and philanthropy hobbyist.

Once the targeted groom was smitten, Deepthi would put into gear her request for urgent help for various dire events such as an ailing mother, urgent surgery and so on.

Her ruses worked, over and over again. One NRI sent her Rs1,400,000 but he turned suspicious and filed a police complaint, and the lying lady was nabbed and remanded to judicial custody.

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An advocate expressed concern at the vulnerability of NRIs and PIOs, who have no viable legal forum to seek redress when they have been cheated or shortchanged. To emphasise this it was stated that in Jones Lang LaSalle's global real estate transparency index, India is ranked in the 40s. The situation is endemic unfortunately, but India's authorities have done nothing to solve the problem.

Recommendations have been made for a separate authority to be established in each state to provide special protection to investors.

Some suggestions were put forward such as making it mandatory that a builder or developer provide a bank guarantee to NRIs, PIOs, OCIs, who intend to invest in properties and find it difficult to adopt or continue legal proceedings against defaulting developers.

A list of questions are suggested that will ensure a due diligence check on the parties involved in the project.

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India renewed its appeal to its nationals and PIOs to leave Yemen urgently and reminded them to use the helplines at the Indian embassy, that have been used by barely a dozen people so far.

The external affairs ministry asked people to approach the mission in Sana'a, or fax, or email the help lines. These arrangements will be in effect till June 11.

In two earlier advisories PIOs and Indian nationals were advised that till they leave the country they should not venture out of their homes except under unavoidable circumstances.

Clashes between army troops and unidentified gunmen have increased since President Ali Abdullah Saleh fled to Saudi Arabia on medical grounds.

Around 10,000 PIOs and Indian nationals are still believed to be in Yemen.

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The US Treasury has published the FBAR (Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Reporting) regulations, that became effective in March.

This will mean that anyone who is a resident of the US, citizen or not, is required to disclose all global financial transactions to the US IRS and pay tax on his global income.

Recently the US Justice Department started a probe into bank accounts opened by US residents with HSBC India, that remained undisclosed to the IRS. The Justice Department believes HSBC advised its NRI clients that the bank would not disclose the existence of their Indian accounts or any transactions done through those accounts.

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