The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Court allows boy to stay with foster parents for six weeks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 11, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Court allows boy to stay with foster parents for six weeks

Staff Reporter

He went missing eight years ago and was traced in 2005

BANGALORE: The case in which the parents of a nine-year-old boy who went missing from a doctor's clinic in Malleswaram for eight years and was traced by the city police found to be living with his foster parents in Mahalakshmi Layout, took a new turn with the Karnataka High Court ordering that the boy remain in the custody of the foster parents for another six weeks.

A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Gururajan and Justice Jawad Rahim adjourned further hearing on the matter. After the conduct of in-camera proceedings, the Bench resumed sitting at 2.30 p.m., with the State Public Prosecutor S. Dore Raju, informing the court that the child may be permitted to meet its biological parents. The Bench observed: "They have waited so long, cannot they wait a while longer? We do not want the child to see two mothers at this tender age, as it would disturb its psychology. The child is already in the court and must have guessed that something is wrong. Let us give it some more time to settle down." The boy's mother, G.R. Sundari, had petitioned the court seeking a direction to the police to hand over the boy. She said she gave birth to a male child at a private nursing home in Vyalikaval. Since she had developed complications in the stomach after pregnancy, she began visiting for further treatment a clinic in Malleswaram.

On December 4, 1997, Sundari went to the clinic along with her child, who was then seven months old. When Sundari went inside the examination room in the clinic, the lady doctor reportedly asked her to leave the child in the outer room where a woman was sitting.

According to Sundari, she left the child in the custody of the woman and went inside. When she came out, her son was missing. She raised a hue and cry and later complained to the police. However, the boy remained untraced till 2005.

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