During the hearing Monday, the mother asked the court if her child was safe. The court replied that he was safe and that the police had traced him. (File)The Delhi Police informed the Delhi High Court Monday that they have traced the ex-husband and son of a Ukrainian woman who claimed that the man had kidnapped the boy and entered India.
The submission was made before a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma after the bench on November 2 directed the Delhi Police to locate the man and the boy.
The father was present “alone” in court and was asked by the bench about the whereabouts of his son. He said the son was unwell and hence could not appear in person. He gave an undertaking before the court that he would bring the child on the next date of the hearing.
The court thereafter listed the matter for hearing on November 16 at the request of the counsel for the petitioner-mother.
During the hearing Monday, the mother asked the court if her child was safe. The court replied that he was safe and that the police had traced him.
Earlier this month, the high court had directed Central Government Standing Counsel Ajay Digpaul, who appeared for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), to inform it as to when the father and son entered India. Digpaul informed the court Monday that the father entered the country on March 28.
In the last hearing, the court questioned if it can direct the child to be sent back to the mother in such turbulent times. The mother had informed the court that she was completely confident that her child is in Indian territory to which the court had said, “The first priority is to locate your son. We will hear you thereafter.”
The mother, a school teacher, had alleged that although a Ukrainian court had already ruled the child’s custody in her favour after their divorce in 2021, the father took the boy away without her consent. The mother alleged the father took their son for a walk on March 27 and did not return. She said although the father was granted visitation rights by authorities, the court in Ukraine had decided that the kid would stay with the mother as he was just three years old and was born in Ukraine.
The plea, filed through advocate Sravan Kumar, states that the father took advantage of the war situation in Ukraine and crossed the Ukraine-Moldova border into Moldova, after which they (father and child) immediately went to Romania and subsequently purchased flight tickets to India. “That the Respondent No.5 has illegally and wilfully made false statement before the Indian authorities to illegally take the child out of Ukraine,” the plea states. The woman alleged that the father at various checkposts and borders of Moldova and Romania including airports of Romania, Doha and New Delhi has shown a fabricated Indian passport of her son to enable him to enter India.
The plea further alleges that the MEA “acted very casually” and instead of conducting an inquiry and taking action, disposed of her grievance suggesting that the “Grievant is requested to approach to the Court or the Ukrainian authority/govt in this matter”.