Try to reduce friction, HC tells Ukrainian mother on meeting 3-year-old son

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) The idea is to interact with her three-year-old son and make him feel comfortable, the Delhi High Court told a Ukrainian woman on Thursday and asked her to try and reduce the "areas of friction" with her estranged Indian husband.

The woman has alleged that the child was illegally brought to India from Ukraine by his father during the Russia-Ukraine war.

The court was informed that in pursuance to its earlier directions, the family -- the boy, his parents and sister -- spent some time together at the Delhi High Court crèche and they wish to interact with each other again.

The woman, who along with her daughter has come to India to meet the child, told a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma that on November 22, when they were with the child at the crèche and she took his pictures for memories, her former husband forcibly got those deleted from her phone.

To this, the court said, "You try and reduce the areas of friction. The idea is that you interact with your son, so do that. The child has to get to the stage where he is comfortable with the mother. Sometimes children get traumatised." The bench allowed the woman to meet and interact with the child at the court crèche as the boy's father said he had no objection to this arrangement.

It asked the parties to appear before it again on Friday.

In an endeavour to re-unite the child with his mother, the court had, on November 22, asked the family to spend some time together.

The woman had earlier informed the court that she was divorced and though the minor's custody was granted to her by a court in Ukraine, her former husband took the boy away without informing her.

The man and the child appeared in the court pursuant to earlier directions by which the bench had asked the Delhi Police to trace them.

The woman, in her plea moved through advocate Sravan Kumar, has alleged that her son was abducted by her former husband on March 23, when he had taken the child for a walk and not returned.

After the dissolution of their marriage last year, the man was granted visitation rights of their minor son.

Besides seeking the production of the child, the woman has also sought a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Delhi Police to lodge a case for kidnapping, illegal travel of a minor without valid documents, creation of a fabricated Indian passport in Ukraine and causing pain to the petitioner and her daughter. PTI SKV RC