Chennai: Observing that the acts of the police in arraying as accused and arresting parents and relatives of boys in cases registered on boys and girls going missing, owing to love affair, amounts to a social wrong, the Madras high court has ordered the immediate release of a mother, arrested in connection with a case relating to a minor girl allegedly eloping with her son in Namakkal district.
A division bench comprising Justices C.T. Selvam and N. Sathish Kumar, however, clarified that “This court is not to be understood as informing that in no cases, shall relatives of the accused be proceeded against. This court only wishes to impress upon the need for care and caution before doing so.”
The bench gave the directive while passing interim orders on a habeas corpus petition filed by Govindaraj, which sought to produce his minor daughter from the illegal custody of a boy before the court and set her at liberty.
Directing the Pallipalayam police in Namakkal district to make all out efforts to trace the missing girl, the bench posted to March 28, further hearing of the case.
The bench said pursuant to the daughter of the petitioner, aged 17, having gone missing, the petitioner has preferred a complaint with the Pallipa
layam police, wherein, initially a CSR was issued on February 13, 2018, and subsequently, a case has been registered on February 20, 2018, informing the daughter of the petitioner as missing. The petitioner alleged that the girl has gone away with a boy of 19 years, the bench added.
The bench said the inspector of police, Pallipalayam police station, presently inform that pursuant to the registration of the case, the mother of the boy has been arrested and she was now housed at Central Prison for Women, Salem.
The inspector of police also submitted that her confession reveals her involvement in the missing of the girl. The inspector of police specifically submitted that the mother of the boy, has so far, not been released on bail, the bench added.
The bench said, “As this court notes that all too frequently parents and relatives of boys are without, a second thought, arrayed as accused in cases registered on boys and girls going missing. This court is not to be understood as informing that in no case, shall relatives of accused be proceeded against. This court only wishes to impress upon the need for care and caution before doing so.”
The bench directed the Superintendent of Central Prison for Women, Salem, to immediately release the mother in the case registered by the Pallipalayam police on her own bond for Rs 5,000.
