A three-year-old boy of Kuravar community, who was languishing in Madurai central prison along with his father, uncle and aunt for 35 days in a theft case, was reunited with his mother on Monday, thanks to the Madurai bench of the Madras high court.
The boy was produced before the division bench comprising justices K K Sasidharan and B Gokuldas following a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother M Mary.
The boy and the trio were taken into police custody on June 21 during a festival in Nallur near Madurai. Mary, her husband N Murugan and their 3-year-old son, her sister Mariammal and her husband Guruvan were selling toys and bangles at the festival since June 19.
Policemen in plainclothes picked up Murugan, Mariammal and Guruvan and forcibly took away the child from Mary alleging that they were involved in theft case. Though Mary told the police that she is the mother of the child and requested them to leave him behind, policemen didn’t pay heed to it.
After running from pillar to post for two weeks, Mary learned that her son and three others would be produced before the Kulithurai judicial magistrate P Shunmugaraj.
During the hearing, Mary pleaded with the magistrate to let off her son claiming that she is the mother of the child.
But the magistrate remanded the child and three others in judicial custody.
Following it, Mary filed the petition before the Madras high court bench. When Mary’s petition came up for hearing on Monday, the police produced the child before the division bench.
The court censured Marthandam police inspector A Muthuraj for producing the child before the magistrate and Shunmugaraj for sending the boy to prison without his mother.
After perusing the case records, the division bench also found that records pertaining to remand of the child tampered with.
The court passed an interim order giving custody of the child to the petitioner. It also directed the director general of police to take disciplinary action against the inspector and sought explanation from the judicial magistrate.
The boy’s father, aunt and uncle are still in the prison.
Activist and executive director of People’s Watch Tamil Nadu Henri Tiphagne said the detaining a child without its mother was a gross violation of the Juvenile Justice Act and the provisions relating to the United Nations Child Rights Convention.
“Moreover, it is very sad that the issue was taken to the child welfare committee of the Kanyakumari district which did not taken any steps to hand over the child to its mother,” Henri Tiphagne said.
Sourced from TNN, Featured image courtesy: www.dodho.com
