BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court imposed a punitive cost of Rs 2 lakh on a 72-year-old woman for filing a habeas corpus petition with an ulterior motive seeking directions to the state police to trace her ‘missing son’.
Maheshwari M, a resident of Indiranagar in the city, filed the petition to take revenge against the Indiranagar police for not registering a case against the neighbour based on her son’s complaint.
Her son accused the neighbour of cultivating ganja on the second floor of his house and causing disturbance by late-night parties. The police conducted an inquiry on the complaint lodged by him and issued an endorsement dated July 1.
“It appears that it is being dissatisfied with the same, to take revenge against the police, the son, colluding with his mother and others, filed this petition. There was apparently no illegal detention, and the writ petition is filed without any bona fides and is an abuse of the process of the court”, said a division bench of Justice Anu Sivaraman and Justice Rajesh Rai K while dismissing the petition filed by Maheshwari recently with a cost of Rs 2 lakh to curb frivolous and malicious invocation of habeas corpus.
Maheshwari contended that her son, Kripalani M, was missing from July 7. She enquired with all his friends and relatives regarding her son’s suspicious disappearance. Since she was unable to trace him, she filed a habeas corpus petition and later withdrew the same on July 24, stating that “certain erroneous statements have been made in the petition by oversight”.
Subsequently, she approached the state police chief by filing a complaint dated July 29 to trace her son. However, the police failed to trace him, and hence she filed the habeas corpus petition. After this, the police traced her son in Chennai on August 5 and produced him before the court on August 7.
The State Public Prosecutor-II (SPP), Vijaykumar Majage, filed a report to the court stating that this petition was filed with the sole intention to harass the Indiranagar police by the mother whose son is a proxy set up by himself. At the time of filing this petition and subsequently, the son was in constant touch with the mother, sister and friend. After filing this petition, the Koramangala police made hectic attempts to trace the person who was staying at a hotel at Semmancheri in Chennai.
When the police informed him to appear before the court, the son abused the police. As such, they sought the help of the jurisdictional police of Chennai to produce him before the court.
However, the son assaulted Vinod Kumar, Police Sub Inspector of Semmancheri police station. Hence, a case has been registered against him there. Finally, the police were able to produce him before the court on August 7, the SPP said.