J.J.MUNIR,J. - (1.) This petition for a writ of habeas corpus has been effectively instituted by Smt. Shalini Singh, wife of Mukesh Kumar Singh asking that her minor son Master Atharva, petitioner no. 1 be ordered to be produced before the Court by Mukesh Kumar singh, Brijesh Kumar Singh and Smt. Madhuri Singh, respondent nos. 6,7 and 8 and ordered to be liberated from the said respondents' custody by ordering the minor to be given into the custody of his mother, the second petitioner.
(2.) Smt. Shalini Singh, the second petitioner and Mukesh Kumar Singh, the 6th respondent were married according to Hindu rites on 03.12.2017. The wife says that there was an early onset of matrimonial cruelty in her life, with her husband and in-laws being the ones to blame. She says that there was demand of additional dowry and assault by the husband on a number of occasions. It appears that the marriage rode a bumpy course. A child, Master Atharv was born of the wedlock of parties on 05.11.2018. If the wife were to be believed the newborn did not do much to cement the cracks that were widening in the parties' marriage. The wife claims that postpartum, the husband, Mukesh turned more abusive and on occasion even attempted to assault the infant.
(3.) This Court does not intend to form opinions about this description of the parties' relationship by the wife but to shorten an account of malady, it must be said that on 11.08.2020, the husband and wife parted ways. The wife says, if her version again is to be believed in, that she was thrown out of the matrimonial home along with her infant on 11.08.2020. She then proceeded to her parents' place at Varanasi. Whichever way the couple fell apart, it is safe to infer that the second petitioner and her husband, the 6th respondent became an estranged couple on and after 11.08.2020. It is claimed by the wife that the 6th respondent came over to her parents' place in the evening hours of 11.08.2020 expressing his repentance and remorse, but she is quick to add that it was neither repentance or remorse; it was a decoy. The wife and her parents were taken in by the ruse and she agreed to go along with the 6th respondent back to her matrimonial home. By that time, it was very late in the evening hours. Therefore, the couple decided to spend the night at the wife's parents' place. The next day that is on 12.08.2020, when the wife's father and brother were away to run some errands, the husband and the second petitioner's in-laws, who were also staying back at the wife's parents' place, forcibly took away the minor, Master Atharv. It is claimed that in the scuffle, Smt. Shalini Singh and her minor son Master Atharv got severely injured. In spite of the injuries sustained by the child, the husband and other members of his family, who were involved in the mischief along with him, whisked away the child. The second petitioner, on her father and brother's return home, narrated the incident. Her father and brother immediately did their best to contact Mukesh Kumar Singh. Initially, Mukesh Kumar Singh did not receive the call, but lateron turned off his phone. The wife appears to have reported the matter through a written complaint addressed to the Station House Officer on 13.08.2020 as well as to the S.S.P., Varanasi and the Chairman Women's Commission, U.P., Lucknow on 17.08.2020 and 18.08.2020, respectively. None of these complaints were of any avail. The wife's father and brother proceeded to her matrimonial home but found the same locked with no one present. None of the second petitioner's in-laws or her husband would answer their phone calls.;