'Kidnapped' From War-torn Ukraine By Father, Delhi High Court Facilitates 3-yr-old's Meeting With Mother At Creche

In an alleged case of international parental child abduction, the Delhi Court on Friday asked a Ukrainian woman to meet her three-year-old child, who was allegedly kidnapped by her ex husband and brought to India when the war was raging between Russia and Ukraine in March, at its recently inaugurated creche.

A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma said that it expects the parties to sit together so that the mother and the child's sister are able to reunite with the 3-year-old.

The bench therefore asked the family to spend some time together till 4 PM today at its crèche situated just outside the court premises.

The parties were also directed to appear again before the court tomorrow. In her plea, the woman has claimed that her former husband brought the child to India after taking advantage of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

During the course of hearing today, the woman, her former husband, their daughter as well as the minor son were present in the court.

As the minor, who was in his father's lap, did not interact much with the mother, she alleged that the child was tutored. However, the court observed that the three-year-old is too young to be tutored. 

Asking the counsel for both the parties to facilitate the meeting between the family, the court told the petitioner mother: "…We wish you all the best. Hopefully you will be able to spend time with the boy and refresh your attachment."

In the plea moved through Advocates Sravan Kumar, Medha Singh, Mohit K. Jakhar and P. Santosh Kumar, the woman has said that while the marriage between her and her former husband was solemnised in 2000, the same was dissolved in May last year by way of court decree in Ukraine.

The man was later granted visitation rights. Besides the three-year-old minor son, a minor girl was also born to the couple in 2002. 

The woman, who is a citizen of Ukraine, has claimed that her ex husband as usual on one evening in March took the three-year-old out for a walk, but did not return. The plea states that upon verification, the woman came to know that he along with the minor child had crossed the border and fled to India from Romania.

It is the petitioner's case that after making an online complaint to MHA and MEA through the Public Grievance platform, the MEA closed the case by stating that "Grievant is requested to approach the Court or the Ukrainian authority/govt in this matter."

It has been averred that while MHA's Foreigners Division has directed the Bureau of Immigration to take appropriate action on the grievance, neither the mother has been able to get her son back nor has any case been registered till date.

Apart from directions to produce and trace the minor son, the plea also seeks directions on CBI and Delhi Police to register criminal cases for alleged kidnapping, illegal travel of minor child without valid documents and creation of fabricated Indian passport to travel from Ukraine.