High Court fumes over detention of child in prison

Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday came down heavily against the police and the lower judiciary for remanding a three-year-old boy, who was lodged in the Special Cell for Women at Madurai Central Prison for 18 days. “How can you remand a chid when the mother is out of the jail,” asked the division bench comprising Justice K.K. Sasidharan and B. Gokuldas while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by child’s mother Mary (31) from Narikuravar community.

The bench also directed Judicial Magistrate I, Kulithurai to appear before the court on Monday and produce all the particulars about the remand of the child Vijay. The petitioner’s counsel R. Karunanidhi told the court that Mary, along with her husband Murugan, son Vijay and her sister Mariyammal had put up a makeshift shop during Perumal temple festival at Nallur near Madurai for three days from June 19. The four plainclothes police personnel who visited the place in a Tata sumo car on June 21, had forcefully taken her child away along with Murugan and Mariyammal in the vehicle. “When Mary pleaded with the police to leave her child, they told her they would drop him back after the completion of inquiry,” said the advocate.

Mary sought assistance from People Watch, an NGO working on human rights issues and filed a petition with Madurai rural police to trace them, but only in vain. Meanwhile, nine among the 13 members of Narikuravar community, who were subjected to illegal custodial torture at Thakkalai police station in Kanyakumari district for a period of 63 days, managed to reach Madurai on July 1.

They informed Mary that her child was being detained in a room behind the police station, said Karunanidhi. When a six member team from People Watch visited the Thakkalai police station on July 3, they found the child Vijay locked inside a room along with Mariyammal. The police had kept the child’s father Murugan inside the station. “Even after knowing very well it is against rule of law to detain a child without the mother in a prison, the lower court remanded the boy.”

When the government pleader tried to argue that the child’s aunt was also lodged along with him in the prison, the judges turned furious. “Don’t be a mouthpiece of the police,” the  court said. Mary who visited the court today told Deccan Chronicle that she had been suffering from mental depression for the last 20 days without seeing her son’s face. “When my younger sister visited the prison to see him, he cried asking for me,” said Mary. “I am not mentally prepared to visit my son in jail,” she said even as she broke into tears. After the police took away her child, Mary has not been keeping good health.