Mumbai: A seven-year-old child should not be denied the warmth of her natural guardian, a court here observed while granting bail to a woman accused in a 2013 kidnapping case.
The accused is the mother of a seven-year-old girl, who has been staying at a children’s home in Andheri, Mumbai, ever since her mother’s arrest in 2022.
The case pertains to the kidnapping of a seven-year-old girl in 2013. The victim was found almost a decade later, leading to the arrest of the accused woman and her husband in August 2022.
While granting bail last week, the court noted that the accused’s daughter has not met her parents for the last three years. “No doubt she has been admitted to Bal Bhavan, which is taking care of her and extending protection. But the warmth of a natural guardian cannot be denied to a seven-year-old child,” the court observed. It further highlighted that the accused herself has been deprived of her daughter’s company, having remained behind bars for three years without trial.
The prosecution’s case
According to the prosecution, the victim’s mother filed a missing complaint at DN Nagar Police Station in January 2013 after her daughter failed to return home from school. The girl remained untraceable until August 3, 2022, when a neighbour of the accused received a video call from a woman who showed a girl resembling the missing child. The neighbour immediately informed the victim’s mother, who then located her daughter with the help of police.
In her statement, the victim alleged that in 2013, the accused lured her with the promise of ice cream and took her to Goa, where she was kept for several months. Later, the accused brought her to Vile Parle in Mumbai, where they rented a house and stayed for four months, before shifting back to Goa.
She further stated that the accused admitted her to a school in Karnataka, where she studied for a year. In 2015, they returned to Mumbai and had been residing in the city since then. During this period, she alleged, she was confined in a house, forced to do household chores, made to work as a babysitter, and had to hand over the money she earned. She also claimed she was subjected to both physical and mental harassment.
The defence’s argument
The accused woman’s lawyer, Nitin Hajare, argued that although the charge sheet was filed in 2022 and charges were framed on January 24, 2024, not a single witness had been examined yet. He also pointed out that the police, in a report filed on April 24, 2024, stated the victim was “not traceable” even then.
The defence stressed that the accused’s daughter had been staying in an orphanage for three years and needed her mother’s care.
The court’s order
After hearing both sides, the court noted that the accused had already spent three years in custody since her arrest on August 5, 2022, and that the trial had not progressed.
While acknowledging the seriousness of the charges, the judge observed that it would be “just and proper” to grant bail to the woman, considering the prolonged custody, the lack of trial progress, and the need for her child to receive parental care.
The accused woman’s husband continues to remain in jail.
