AHMEDABAD: A husband’s petition in the Gujarat high court, seeking custody of his pregnant wife from her “lesbian” friend was dismissed after she decided not to go back to him.
In response to the habeas corpus petition that the Chandkheda resident filed last week, city police produced the man’s wife before the court on Monday. Upon inquiry by the judges, the woman refused to return to her husband and said she wanted to be with her friend.
The HC permitted her to join the company of her female friend according to her wish.
In its order, the bench of Justice I J Vora and Justice S V Pinto said, “We have ascertained the wish of the corpus and according to her statement, she alleged that harassment, both mental and physical, was being caused to her by the applicant, her husband, and that is why she voluntarily left her matrimonial home and decided to live with respondent no. 4 (the female friend). On the aspect of illegal confinement, she stated that there is no illegal confinement by respondent no. 4 and requested this court to set her free as per her wish and will.”
The court further stated, “Considering the statement made by the corpus, this court is of the view that, there is no illegal confinement of the corpus and hence, the corpus is set free forthwith as per her wish.” The man had filed the petition last week, complaining that his seven months pregnant wife left him in Oct for her female friend, who is a lesbian. He said that the friend was attracted to his wife in what he called a “one-sided attraction”.
He alleged his wife was illegally detained by her friend, who also lived in the same locality, but he did not know her whereabouts after his wife’s disappearance. In his petition filed through advocate Imtiyaz Kureshi, the man stated that his complaints about his wife’s disappearance resulted in an entry in Chandkheda police register. When he pressured the cops to find his wife, one of them informed him she was with her female friend in Bengaluru and that her statement had been recorded through Instagram.
He was also informed that his wife refused to return to him. The police official, however, did not provide evidence of the same to him, which brought him to the high court.