New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday admitted in the
Supreme Court that it was still unable to trace an NRI mother
who fled with her minor son for the second time after fleeing
from the US.
Additional Solicitor General Haren Rawal told a special
bench of Justices R M Lodha and B S Chauhan that two special
teams have been formed by the agency to trace the runaway
mother Vijaysree.
He sought six more weeks to file a compliance report on
the issue.
The apex court had on March 26 directed the CBI to trace
Vijaysree and hand over the child Aditya to her husband
Ravichandran who has been fighting a legal battle for custody
of his son since 2007.
The Court had earlier directed the mother to return to
the US to settle a legal battle for the child`s custody.
The apex court had said if Vijaysree fails to comply with
the direction to return to the US, the husband would be
entitled to the custody of the child after the 15-day period
and can take him to the US on his own.
Vijaysree gave an assurance that she will return to the
US along with the child and the estranged husband to fight the
custodial battle there but later retracted and fled with the
child.
Aggrieved, her husband Ravichandran filed a fresh
application in the apex court seeking custody of his child..
The court had passed the earlier direction on a Habeas
Corpus petition filed by Ravichandran who had full custodial
rights of the child.
Vijaysree had fled to India, along with Aditya, in 2007
and kept dodging the police of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, after which the apex court
directed the CBI to locate them.
The CBI had in October last year managed to apprehend
Vijaysree and Aditya in Chennai and produced them before the
apex court.
Following a divorce decree by a court in New York in June
2007, joint custody rights of the child were granted to the
estranged couple who were domiciled in the US. However,
Vijaysree subsequently breached the joint custody consent
decree and fled to India.
PTI
