HC allows woman to go with her kin

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Thursday gave its nod for a 22-year-old Gujarati woman, who’s allegedly abducted by her family with a posse of henchmen for having married a man from Tenkasi, to go along with her relative in Kerala.

Earlier, the woman was produced by the Tenkasi police amidst tight security before the court. She in a statement expressed her wish to go with her relative, who is in Kerala. The Tenkasi police submitted her recorded statement in a sealed cover before the court.

A division bench of Justice G Jayachandran and Justice KK Ramakrishnan, after taking into consideration that she’s a major, accepted her request to stay with her paternal uncle in Kerala and also insisted that her relative should take responsibility for ensuring her safety.

The bench also directed the Tenkasi police to produce her before the court for further hearing and she should extend her cooperation. The court also closed the habeas corpus petition filed by Mariappan Vineeth of Kottakulam, Sengottai and opined that the petitioner could approach lower court for any remedy.

Earlier, her grandparents filed an affidavit seeking her custody, but the police raised objections to the plea suspecting that the grandparents were harboring her parents and other accused in the alleged kidnapping case as it would affect the investigation.