Missing boy brought to court on a stretcher

A fourteen-year-old boy, who had been missing for the last ten months, was brought on a stretcher before the Karnataka High Court, which had directed the police to trace the boy and produce him before the court.

The boy Naveen Chandra was brought to the court in a sick condition after his mother had filed a habeas corpus petition before the High Court seeking a direction to the police to produce her son missing since February this year.

Amidst touching scenes in the court premises, the Division bench of the High Court comprising Justice H L Dattu and Justice Anand Reddy handed over the boy’s custody to the mother.

Naveen Chandra’s mother Radha had filed a missing complaint with Nelamangala police in Karnataka’s Tumkur district during March 2006. After she received no reply from the police, Radha filed another complaint in August 2006, suspecting her husband. Radha contended that her husband used to ill-treat her and alleged that he had kidnapped her son and kept him illegally.

When the police did not trace her son, Radha moved the High Court and sought a direction to the police to trace her son and hand him over to him. The court ordered the police to immediately trace the boy and bring him to court.

Nelamangala police created a flutter when they brought the boy to the court on a stretcher and handed him over to the mother.

According to State Public Prosecutor S Dore Raju, the boy was found in Lakshmipura near Bangalore. He claimed that the boy was in poor health on account of malnutrition and addition to gutkha. He had been produced before the court after the cops provided him urgent medical treatment at a Government Hospital, he said.