HC had granted girl’s custody to maternal grandmother after father killed her mother in Dubai in 2013, but paternal grandmother took her away In a case about the custody of a minor girl, the Bombay High Court recently directed the Goregaon police station in Raigad district to submit the school attendance records of the child before the court, in order to assess if her paternal and maternal grandmothers were “ taking care of welfare of the child or not.” After her father was convicted of killing her mother in Dubai in 2013, the child has been caught in a custody battle between her maternal and paternal grandmothers. The court sought the records on being informed by the police that the child had not gone to school for almost a month. The maternal grandmother of the eight-year-old girl was granted her custody by the High Court on November 15, 2017. Thereafter, when she went to the residential address of the paternal grandmother in Raigad to seek custody of the minor girl, she learnt that the child had been taken away from the jurisdiction of local police station. She had then filed an FIR with Goregaon police station on November 20. The maternal grandmother also filed a civil application before the High Court seeking issuance of direction to Goregaon police station to bring the girl before the court for the purpose of custody. Meanwhile, the paternal grandmother filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order for granting custody of the child to the maternal grandmother. The paternal grandmother’s lawyer claimed that the custody of the child could not be handed over to the applicant, as the child was attending the school and her term would get over in March or April 2018. The assistant government pleader, however, told the court that the police had recorded the statement of the child, in which she has stated that she remained absent in the school for almost a month and that she was kept in the hotel at Kharghar by her paternal grandmother. “In view of this statement, I am of the view that the school record of attendance of the girl (name withheld) for the months of October, November and December is required to assess the acts and actions of the parties whether they are taking care of welfare of the child or not. Goregaon police station is directed to obtain the attendance record of the girl from I N T Academy English School, Purar, Raigad,” said Justice Mridula Bhatkar. The parents of the child had a love marriage on May 11, 2008. On August 8 the same year, the wife converted to Islam. Their daughter was born on March 2, 2009. The couple were then living in Dubai and on March 11, 2013, the husband allegedly strangulated his wife to death and is presently on death row in the UAE.