Produce two kids in court or face arrest, Bombay HC warns businessman from Jaipur on ex-wife's plea

MUMBAI: A businessman from Jaipur was directed to be present with his two minor children on Friday or else orders to ensure their presence, including arrest warrants, could be issued, the Bombay high court said while hearing an urgent plea from his former wife.
The bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and Abhay Ahuja also restrained the man and his parents from taking the kids out of India until further orders.
The woman had filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus (order to produce a person), saying, through her advocate Gayatri Gokhale, their two teenaged children "are in illegal detention and confinement'' and expressing concern over their "welfare, security and safety''. Earlier, she had cited WhatsApp messages from her children to her to claim they feared being taken to Hong Kong against their wish. She said she had been married to the businessman in 2005 and was living in the US in 2017 when he gave triple talaq.
The woman said she has raised her children on her own since 2017. She re-married in September 2021 and has settled with the children with her husband in Kemp's Corner.
On September 30, her former in-laws, along with two police officers allegedly from Amer police station, showed up at her house and took her and the children to Jaipur, saying she would be arrested and produced before a magistrate in a case of jewellery theft and criminal intimidation. She said she explained to the police that it was a "false complaint'' as she had been in Mumbai.
However, she was "forced to accompany them to Jaipur'' with the children and their passports, Green Cards, etc. Since the man and his father had businesses in Hong Kong and the US, they had procured US Green Card and Permanent Identity Card of Hong Kong for her and the children.
They were put up in a hotel and under duress and threats of imprisonment and abuse in jail made to sign two documents, including a talaqnama. Her conversations with the children were "restricted" and "monitored" by the in-laws.
She cllaimed that after learning about her remarriage, "a false and fabricated FIR'' was filed for an offence on September 23 in Rajasthan when she was in Mumbai and her former parents-in-law "acted in concert and connivance'' with her ex-husband.
After she moved the high court, the judges on October 25 directed that notice be issued to the man, his parents, police officers from Jaipur and Gamdevi police station and posted the matter for hearing after Diwali vacation on November 16.
On Wednesday, Gokhale pleaded urgency, saying since October 25, no communication has been allowed between the mother and the children. She said the mother fears that the children, who hold Indian passports, are likely to be taken to Hong Kong without their consent. She also pointed to the abusive language used by her ex-husband in communications with her.
Though served with the petition, no lawyer appeared for the ex-husband and his family, the HC noted and directed him to be present along with the children at 10.30am on November 12.