The Telangana High Court on Thursday gave custody of a girl child, the granddaughter of retired judge Justice Nooty Rammohan Rao, to her mother, Sindhu Sharma. Last week, based on a complaint by Sindhu, a case of dowry harassment and domestic violence had been registered against Rao, his wife and his son.
A day after the case was booked, Sindhu arrived at the residence of the former judge in Hyderabad and staged a protest for many hours, following which she managed to get the custody of her younger daughter, who was one-and-half years old, with the intervention by police. Sindhu alleged that in-laws were refusing to hand over the elder daughter as they fear that she would speak out about the ill-treatment and physical assault.
Following this, she had filed a habeas corpus petition asking the Telangana Police to produce her elder daughter, a three-year-old.
On a complaint by Sindhu, the Central Crime Station of Hyderabad police last Saturday filed a criminal case against Rammohana Rao, his wife Lakshmi and their son Vasista, charging them under sections 498-A (punishment for subjecting a married woman to cruelty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and Dowry Prohibition Act.
Sindhu and Vasista had married six years ago. However, for last few months, her in-laws and husband had been allegedly harassing her for dowry and subjecting her to physical and mental torture.
Last week, she had to be admitted to a hospital after they allegedly thrashed her mercilessly. With the physical assault becoming unbearable, she decided to approach the police.
At the time, she told media persons that Rammohan Rao suggested divorce with mutual consent. She, however, made it clear that the police case against them should first come to a conclusion.
Rammohana Rao was a senior judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court who retired in 2017 while serving at Madras High Court.