Police personnel complain to Madras HC of shabby treatment by woman, family when they attempted to implement court orders

The High Court had on March 8 directed the police to assist an American citizen of Indian origin to take custody of his two minor children from their mother and fly them back to the United States

The Greater Chennai police on Monday complained to the Madras High Court of its personnel having been ill-treated, abused and threatened by a mother of two American children of Indian origin when the law enforcers attempted to comply with the court orders to ensure the children were taken back by their father to the United States.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and N. Anand Venkatesh was also informed that the woman had taken the High Court’s order on appeal to the Supreme Court on Monday and obtained an interim relief in her favour from a three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala.

The Supreme Court had decided to hear her appeal on Friday since the papers had not been circulated to her estranged husband’s counsel. In the meantime, no coercive steps should be taken against her and she, in turn, should permit the father to meet the children for an hour every day, the apex court had ordered.

Additional Public Prosecutor A. Gokulakrishnan told the Bench led by Justice Vaidyanathan that G. Gopi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Kilpauk, had deputed a team comprising an Assistant Commissioner of Police, two Inspectors of Police including a woman, one Sub-Inspector, three Head Constables, one male constable and three women constables.

The team was instructed to visit the woman’s residence at Kilpauk on March 9 and assist the children’s father in taking their custody as directed by the High Court on March 8. However, the team was made to wait outside the residence for hours together from afternoon till evening since the woman had gone out with the children.

The woman’s aged father and brother behaved very rudely and abused the police personnel, the DCP told the court in his status report. After she returned home at 7.30 p.m., the woman did not allow the children’s father to talk with them and instead locked them up in a room on the first floor of the house and prevented the police from approaching them.

She also brought three lawyers who entered into a quarrel with the police team. The lights inside the residence were switched off and the woman blocked the staircase physically preventing the police from reaching the children. She also turned violent, called the policemen as hooligans and accused them of harassing her.