To make matters worse, the lawyer defending the accused woman has contended that the NCB was using the children as 'bait to trap' the woman's husband who is also an absconding accused in the case.
The Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) court has come down heavily on the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for sending two children of an arrested woman to a state-run children's home in Mankhurd, despite the woman asking the NCB to send them home with her family.
To make matters worse, the lawyer defending the accused woman has contended that the NCB was using the children as 'bait to trap' the woman's husband who is also an absconding accused in the case.
It all started in August 2016 when the woman, a Kashmir resident named Mehbooba Alam Dhar, was arrested at Borivali station after she alighted from a train with 40 kilograms of charas in her possession. Dhar's children, aged nine and 12 years, were with her at the time of arrest. Another lady named Mehroon was also arrested.
The court also flayed NCB for acting 'harshly' against the kids, who had nothing to do with the intercepted contraband.
The NCB arrested both women, while the kids were sent to the children's home in Mankhurd. The mother, however, had requested the officers to hand over the kids to her family members, either to her nephew or her father-in-law, who would take the kids back to Kashmir. The officials did not pay heed to the mother's plea.
Advocate Ayaz Khan, who was appearing as a defence counsel for Dhar, had filed the application pleading the court to release the kids.
The application was opposed by the prosecution on the grounds that the offence under which the lady was arrested was of a serious nature. "Minors have been kept in children's care home. The children had to be handed over only to their father as per the provisions of the Guardianship act. The minors cannot be handed over to the accused's nephew or her father-in-law," said the prosecution.
The defence, however, said the move of the prosecution was a honey trap which they used to nab the kids' father. The defence said the father is also an alleged accused in the case and is absconding, thus, the agency was 'misusing' the children to meet their interests.
The court, after hearing both arguments, held, "The court has made an enquiry with the minor children and they have shown their willingness to go along with the nephew. There is no dispute about the custody of the minor children. The state cannot keep them in the children's home when relatives are ready to take care of the children. According to the accused, the father of the children will be arrested by the police and just because they want to arrest the father, it is not proper to keep the children in children care home, thus ordering the state to immediately release the kids."
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