A court in Mumbai has said that a seven-year-old child should not be denied the “warmth of the natural guardian” while granting bail to a woman arrested for kidnapping a minor girl in 2013.

The accused is the mother of a seven-year-old girl, who has been staying at a children’s home in Andheri since her mother’s arrest, reported PTI.

The case dates back to 2013, when the accused woman and her husband allegedly kidnapped a child, who was aged seven at the time. The child remained missing for nine years before being traced, leading to the couple’s arrest in 2022.

Additional Sessions Judge SM Takalikar of Dindoshi court granted bail to the woman last week, noting that the accused’s daughter had not met her mother for the past three years, reported PTI.

“No doubt she is admitted in the Bal Bhavan, which is taking care of her and extending protection,” the court said, adding, “The warmth of the natural guardian would not be denied to the child of 7 years.”

The judge also considered that the accused had been deprived of her child’s company for three years without a trial, reported PTI.

According to the prosecution, the kidnapped child’s mother had filed a missing person report on January 22, 2013, after her daughter did not return from school.

The girl remained untraceable until August 3, 2022, when a neighbour received a video call from a woman showing a girl resembling the missing child. The neighbour confirmed the identity, helping the mother locate her daughter.

In her statement, the victim said the accused had lured her away in 2013 with a promise of ice cream, took her to Goa, and later moved to Vile Parle, Mumbai, before returning to Goa. She alleged that she was enrolled in a school in Karnataka for a year and confined at home, forced to do household chores, work as a babysitter, and hand over her earnings. The girl also claimed she was physically and mentally harassed.

The accused’s lawyer, Nitin Hajare of legal aid NGO Dard Se Hamdard Tak, argued that the charge sheet was filed in 2022 and charges framed on January 24, 2024, but no witnesses had been examined.

He stressed that the accused’s daughter had been in an orphanage for three years and required her mother’s care.

The court noted that the accused had been in custody since August 5, 2022, and the trial had not progressed. While acknowledging the seriousness of the offence, the judge accepted the defence’s plea regarding the welfare of the accused’s daughter, stating it was “just and proper” to grant her bail.

The accused’s husband remains in jail.

(With PTI inputs)

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