Madurai Bench of Madras HC initiates suo motu contempt against inspector
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday has initiated suo motu contempt against the Inspector of Police, Chiamanoor police station for not obeying the court's direction in a matter relating to a habeas corpus petition seeking to find the missing husband of a woman in Kerala.
The court also directed the Superintendent of Police, Theni to appear in court on August 8. K Seetha Devi from Chiamanoor town, Theni district filed a habeas corpus petition before a division bench comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and B Gokuldas seeking to direct the police to trace her husband who was kept at an unknown location by her mother-in-law Prusana from Kerala.
Seetha Devi and Dhanam Jayan fell in love when they were studying an engineering course at a private college in Theni district and got married on June 8, 2011 in the register office at Bodinayakkanur against their parents' will. Later both families accepted them and they got married as per Hindu custom at Veerapandi Sri Gowmariamman temple on June 19, 2011.
The girls' parents gave 50 sovereign of gold jewellery as dowry at the time of the marriage. Seetha Devi handed over the jewels to her mother-in-law Prusana and the couple left for Bengaluru in search of jobs. After Seetha Devi got a job in private company in November 2012, she also arranged a job for her husband in the same company, she said in the petition.
The couple led a happy life in Bengaluru, but her mother-in-law forced the couple to send either of their salaries to her every month. Meanwhile, she started harassing Seetha Devi over the phone and abused her, referring also to her lower caste status. 'When I got pregnant, without mercy she told me to abort the baby," she said in the petition.
Meanwhile, Dhanam Jayan went to his house in Kerala on four days' leave on Nov 2, 2015 and never returned. When Seetha Devi made repeated attempts to contact him, the in-laws prevented her from getting in touch with him. When she visited her in-laws' house in Kerala on April 16, they didn't allow her to enter the house even though her husband Dhanam Jayan expressed a wish to go back with her to Bengaluru.
Seetha Devi received summons from the Family Court, Kattappanna at Kerala. When she examined it, she was shocked to find her husband had filed a divorce petition with her mother-in-law enjoying the power of attorney, the petitioner said. She filed a petition with Theni and Kerala police to rescue her husband, but only in vain. Hence she filed a habeas corpus petition. In an earlier hearing, the court had directed the Inspector to produce Dhanam Jayan in the court, but he failed to follow the court direction.
