Two children of Triple Talaq petitioner go 'missing', found

Two children of Ishrat Jahan, one of the five petitioners who challenged the Triple Talaq practice in the Supreme Court, went "missing" on Thursday morning but were found by police and returned to their mother by evening.

Jahan, a resident of West Bengal's Howrah district, on Thursday lodged a police complaint that her two children were kidnapped from her residence, police said.

"My two minor children have been kidnapped from my lawful guardianship around 11.30 a.m. on August 31 from near my residence in Howrah," her complaint at Golabari police station read.

In her complaint, Jahan, who is mother to four children, alleged that her seven-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl went missing while playing outside their house.

Her two other children stay with Jahan's husband's second wife in Bihar.

Confirming that an FIR was lodged on the basis of Jahan's complaint, police said the children went out with their father and have been traced.

"This is not a case of kidnapping. The two kids went out for shopping with their father. They have been traced already," a senior officer from Golabari police station told IANS.

"The two children have since been restored to the complainant," he added.

Jahan's lawyer Nazia Elahi Khan alleged "conspiracy" in the matter.

"Without taking her permission he took them away... Ishrat is their guardian... the children should have been taken to the mother, but instead they were taken to the police... this indicates a conspiracy and that anything can be done to Jahan," Khan told IANS, adding that their father has returned from Dubai recently.

Jahan had recently written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, appealing for police protection in the wake of "threats" to her life.

--IANS

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