Minor refuses to go with grandparents

A nine-year-old girl wants to stay at the orphanage instead of going with her paternal grandparents and paternal uncle to Orissa.

A nine-year-old girl wants to stay at the orphanage instead of going with her paternal grandparents and paternal uncle to Orissa.

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The girl said this during her interviewed by Bombay High Court judges on Thursday.

The girl is staying at St Catherine’s Orphanage at Andheri in 2006 after her father was arrested for killing her mother.

In 1995, the girl’s father Rajendra Behera came from Orissa to Mumbai in search of job. He fell on love with Aruna and the two got married against their parents’ wishes.

In 2006, Rajendra was arrested for killing Aruna and he was later convicted for her murder.

A division bench of Justice D.B. Bhosale and Justice A.R. Joshi asked the maternal grandparents and uncle to be present in the court next week to decide whether they were willing to take the child’s responsibility.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the girl’ paternal uncle Ratnakar Behera, a resident of Orissa, seeking that they should be given the child’s custody.

“She (girl) is comfortable where she is and also with her maternal grandparents with whom she stays on holidays. There is no way we will allow her to go with you (Behera) after interviewing her,” said Justice Bhosale.