During the hearing of a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, an 11-year-old boy from Pilibhit appeared before the division bench and declared the case of his ‘murder’ they were hearing was false as he was very much alive.
The boy claimed his grandfather and uncles were falsely implicated in his murder case by his father.
Accepting the petition, the SC said that “no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioners till further orders”.
The court also issued notices to the UP government, superintendent of police at Pilibhit and the station house officer of Neuria police station where the case was lodged.
Revealing the chain of events advocate Kuldeep Jauhari said, “The boy had been living with his maternal grandfather, a farmer, since February 2013 after his mother was brutally beaten up by his father, who wanted more dowry from her family.”
“His mother, who married in February 2010, succumbed to her injuries due to the beating in March 2013,” the lawyer added.
Following her death, the grandfather lodged an FIR under IPC Section 304-B (dowry death) against his son-in-law.
Meanwhile, the son-in-law demanded his son’s custody, leading to a bitter legal battle, with both sides slapping cases against each other.
According to Jauhari, earlier this year, the son-in-law accused the grandfather and his four sons of the boy’s murder and filed an FIR after which they were booked.
“They approached the Allahabad high court for quashing the FIR but the court dismissed their petition as a result of which they had to appear in the SC along with the boy as evidence that he was alive,” Jauhari said.
The matter will now be heard in January next year.
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