Man kidnaps son from mother to ‘save’ him

MUMBAI: The father of a six-yearold boy has applied for anticipatory bail in the session’s court after a complaint was lodged against him by his estranged wife for taking away their son from her. The father has claimed in the application that he had taken the boy because the boy was not being treated properly by his wife.

After hearing the application, the additional sessions judge did not grant any interim relief, but asked the father to remain present in court along with the son on November 29.

According to the anticipatory bail application filed through advocate Mathews Nedumpara, the 38-year-old father stated that he had married the woman in 2009. The couple had a son in 2012. In 2013, the wife left her husband with their 15-month-old son and despite numerous requests, refused to return. The father stated that after eight months, the wife handed their two-year-old son over to him. The petition states that on July 7, 2018, the wife came to visit the son at her matrimonial house and in the absence of the husband, took their son away. The petition alleges that the kidnapping of their son by his wife was aided by her brother who was waiting on a twowheeler outside the house. The petition alleges that though the grandfather of the child rushed to the VP Road police station to inform of the incident, the police failed to take cognisance or register a case. The father stated that after the wife took away the child, he approached the Bombay high court and based on its October 31 order permitting him visitation rights, he had visited his son on November 17. Like in previous meetings, the son had pleaded his father to take him away as the mother used to beat him. Therefore, the father had taken the boy away from the mother’s house after which an FIR was filed against the 38-year-old at Chunabhatti police station. He further stated that the police has failed to give him a copy of the FIR and he fears arrest for taking away his child and hence the application for anticipatory bail. MUMBAI: The Kurla police arrested a 32-year-old man on Thursday for allegedly harassing his 19-year-old wife by forcing her to get ₹9 lakh from her family. The man had raped the woman when she was a 13-yearold Class 6 student and later married her in 2017 when she turned 18. The girl had agreed to drop the case under the condition that he would marry her.

Within two months of their marriage, the husband and his mother started harassing the victim.

“The victim’s mother-in-law started demanding ₹9 lakh from her family, claiming the money was spent to defend her son in the rape case. She even poured kerosene on the victim to torture here,” another police officer said.

Frustrated with this, the victim left her husband in January 2018 and started living with her parents. The accused, however, kept harassing her and stalked the woman for a few days at Govandi station in September. He even abused her several times over the phone and also threatened to throw acid on her. In September, when the woman had posted her photo on a social networking website, the accused posted vulgar and defamatory comments on her photo. Scared and disturbed, the

woman then lodged a complaint against her husband with the Kurla police.

On Thursday, the woman learnt her husband was going to go to Kurla railway station. She alerted the police, after which the police arrested him. The accused has been charged with sections 509, 506 of the IPC and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. “We’re trying to collect more evidence in the case,” said M Patil, inspector at Kurla police station.