Couple seeks govt help to bring back kids from Kerala home

Harikrishnan (36), a coolie and a resident of Banavaram near Arakkonam and his wife Bharathy (27), parents of Bhavana (5), Jagan (4) and Raghava (2) came to the Vellore Collector’s office to petition Parthiban seeking government help to bring back their children from Kerala.

The couple told the officials that last December Bharathy along with her children took Jagan, who was sick to Children’s Hospital in Chennai Egmore. After treatment, Bharathy took a ticket for Banavaram for the return journey. But, she boarded a wrong train and reached Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Bharathy, who realised that she had reached a wrong destination, came out of the station.

The couple said that the Kerala police on seeing her with the three children questioned Bharathy. They asked her if she brought the children for begging in the city. When she narrated her tale, the police refused to buy her explanation and took the children to a separate room.

Bharathy said that she contacted her husband, who rushed to Kerala. Though Harikrishnan produced the birth certificate of his children, ration card and written evidence endorsed by the Village Administration Officer, the Kerala refused to believe them, addedBharathy.

“When I refused to leave without my children, the Kerala police beat me,” he alleged.

Later the couple returned home and again went to Thiruvananthapuram along with their relatives. Then the police promised to send the children within a week.

As the children did not return even after three months, “I am forced to seek official help and hence have come to petition the DRO in the absence of collector SA Raman,” Harikrishnan said. Parthiban, who accepted the petition, assured that all necessary action would be taken to help the couple get back their children.