HC listens to kid, grandma wins custody battle

KOLKATA: Listening to five-year-oldAbhishek Chatterjee, Calcutta High Court on Wednesday awarded his custody to hisgrandmother - and not his mother. The court allowed thechild���s grandmother Rina Chatterjee of Serampore to take charge ofAbhishek on the grounds that the child refused to stay with his motherDipali.Justice Sadhan Gupta quashed criminal proceedings moved byDipali against Rina and brother-in-law Iman. However, the judge granted Dipalithe liberty to approach the appropriate forum to claim custody of her child ashis natural guardian. Dipali had complained before the judicial magistrate ofSerampore, Hooghly, that Rina and Iman had wrongfully and illegally confined herson. The case is still pending in a Serampore court. Dipali, aresident of Howrah, had married Kalyan Chatterjee of Sheoraphuli in August 2001.Abhishek, their only son, was born in June 2002. On June 6, 2007, Kalyancommitted suicide by hanging himself at his residence. Complaining of abetmentto suicide, Kalyan���s mother Rina lodged an FIR with Serampore policestation, holding Dipali responsible for her son���s death.Afterthe FIR, Dipali was arrested and later released on bail. She countered hermother-in-law by moving the Serampore judicial magistrate���s court,accusing her and Iman of wrongful and illegal confinement of her minorson.The magistrate passed an order on August 16, 2007, inRina���s favour, allowing her to have interim custody of the child. Whilegranting custody to Rina, the court considered the child���s willingness anddesire as he had, in open court, refused to stay with his mother. The judgeobserved that in the best interests of the child, the court was inclined to holdthat the child should be handed over to his grandmother.Aggrievedwith the order, Dipali moved high court praying for setting aside the lowercourt���s order. On the other hand, through advocate Pushpal Satpathi, Rina,too, approached the high court seeking the quashing of criminal proceedingspending against her in a Serampore court.The high court, whilequashing the proceedings against Rina, held that there was no illegality in theSerampore court���s August 16, 2007, order.