Mumbai: The Bombay High Court brought cheer to a family in Nagpada by hearing, and accepting, their plea to be reunited with the two foster daughters they had found in a garbage dump 11 years ago.
The family was torn apart two months ago, after a woman turned up to claim the girls as her own.
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court instructed that the girls be returned to the custody of the foster family. It also questioned the police action in takeing the girls away without conducting a DNA to prove the woman’s claim.
When Rubina Sheikh and her husband Rafiq found the girls in a dumpster 11 years ago, they were aged six months old and 1.5 years. Although the couple already had four kids, they brought up the sisters as their own.
On March 25, the police took the girls — Kaisar and Kausar — away, saying their real mother wanted them back. Both the girls were in the fifth grade and were going for exams when the cops took them away. They kept the girls in a remand home pending the decision on their custody.
Rafiq said they appealed to the Nagpada police and the Child Welfare Committee to let the girls appear for their exams, which the authorities permitted. The family underwent distress and anxiety since the girls were sent to the remand home.
The Sheikhs then filed a habeas corpus writ at the Bombay High Court, where a total of five hearings took place none of which were attended by the woman claiming to be the girls’ mother. Finally, on Wednesday, the court ordered the immediate release of both the girls and gave their custody to the family.
The court took an undertaking that the elderly couple will take care of the sisters and produce them in court as and when required. The Sheikhs, who took the girls home at 9 pm that day, seemed thrilled. “I don’t know much about law; I am not literate, but I know these are my daughters,” Rafiq said.
Kaisar and Kausar said, “We are very happy. They (Rubina and Rafiq) are our parents. Please don’t take us away from them. We want to be with them forever. We love them more than anything.”