Delhi court rebukes Gujarat officers for using child as leverage in father hunt

In a ruling dated August 12, an Additional Sessions Judge in Delhi dismissed a criminal revision petition filed by four Gujarat Police officers who had been accused of kidnapping a minor. The officers had taken the child from his mother’s scrap shop in Delhi on May 25, 2008, and moved him to Ahmedabad while searching for the boy’s father, who was wanted in a criminal case. The judge described the act as akin to “colonial overlords” using the child as bait, and said it bore no reasonable connection to their official duties.

The mother’s allegations and the boy’s own statement about confinement and torture were central to the prosecution’s case. The court also pointed out that the petition contained factual inaccuracies, including the mistaken claim that cognizance was taken in 2026, when records show it occurred in 2010. Consequently, the trial court’s decision to frame kidnapping charges against the officers was upheld.