The Supreme Court is to take up a plea on Monday that has been submitted by the mother of a Bengaluru-based engineer who died by suicide in December 2024, alleging that he was harassed by his wife. Through this case, the petitioner, Anju Devi, is calling on the court to issue a habeas corpus order to have physical custody of her four years old grandson.
It will be listed before a two-member bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Saish Chandra Sharma in the Supreme Court. Earlier on January 7, the apex court refused to grant custody to Devi, saying she was a stranger to the child.
The 34-year-old engineer was found hanging in his house in Munnekolalu, Bengaluru on December 9, 2024. In the messages that the suspect is said to have sent before launching the attack, he accused his wife and her relatives of harassing him to commit suicide. This incident especially has not only received public attention but it also sparked media attention.
In the earlier appearance of the case, the counsel for the estranged wife told the court that the child was in a boarding school in Haryana. Kumar Dushyant Singh, for instance, said that Devi was wrong to place the child in a boarding school before he was six years old and alleged that the estranged wife was concealing the child’s whereabouts. Singh also produced photographs of Devi playing with the child during his childhood to prove acquaintance.
The child was, therefore, adjourned to the next sitting on January 20, and the court stated that it could not make decisions based on rumours from the media. Devi argues that the child’s best interests would be met if she took him away from the couple who continuously disagreed with one another. The case has received much attention because the circumstances surrounding the case and the emotions involved have been so sensitive, and this coming hearing is likely to shed more light on the issues related to child custody.
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