NEW DELHI: Four days after an eight-year-old girl was abducted by her father, a US citizen, and grandmother from a posh Delhi hotel to Nepal, she is now being taken to the United States in violation of the Delhi High Court order, her mother has alleged.
The father and mother of the girl are fighting a court battle over her custody.
The minor girl was abducted by Karan Goel and her grandmother Jasleen Goel with the help of three US citizens from Hyatt Residency Hotel in Delhi’s Aerocity on April 15 and reached Nepal via road on April 16.
On April 17, a case of kidnapping was registered at the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport police station on the complaint of her mother Kanika Goel.
The matter came to light after Kanika approached the Delhi High Court alleging abduction of her daughter.
In her complaint, Kanika alleged that as per the High Court order, she had led the girl to her father and grandmother at Hyatt Hotel on April 13. The booking at the hotel was till April 18.
“As per the court orders, she was constantly in touch with me via the cell phone I had given her. My last call with my daughter was at 9 pm on April 15 and I have not been able to contact her as her phone was not reachable,” Kanika stated in her complaint.
In her complaint, she further said that even her father and grandmother cell phones have been not reachable since the night of April 15.
“On not being able to contact my daughter, I reached the hotel on April 16 and seek assistance to speak to my daughter. However, they were not in the hotel as informed by the staff, but had also not checked out. Then I called the police for assistance,” she alleged.
She further said, “Due to police intervention, we were able to see hotel CCTV footage, which showed that Karan and Jasleen picked up my daughter at 10.45 pm on April 15 and they have not returned to the hotel since then and are completely untraceable,” the complaint read.
“On further inquiry from the police, it has come to our knowledge that Karan along with her mother have crossed the Indo-Nepal through Banbassa on the morning of April 16,” she said in her complaint, adding that her husband and mother-in-law were also assisted by three US citizens.
Speaking to The New Indian, a close family member of Kanika said, “Kanika is fighting to take custody of her daughter who is being illegally being taken to US by her father and grandmother.”
According to the family, the Delhi High Court, while hearing Kanika’s plea, categorically observed that the father has violated the visitation orders and submitted a wrong passport.
The girl was in sole custody of the mother, Kanika, for last 6 years, the family said.
“We can hear the girl cry ‘I want my mother. She doesn’t know her father. Will the Nepal authorities and Indian authorities hear the poor girl’s cries,” asks one of family member of Kanika.