New Delhi, Aug 7 (TIWN) A woman is fighting an intense legal battle seeking custody of her minor nephew from his Egyptian father, who allegedly sexually harassed and committed paedophilic acts with the child. The man absconded with the child from India in February 2020, and they are untraceable so far.

The sister of the petitioner died on 17 April 2019, soon after the birth of the child in Pune. The petitioner moved to Egypt along with the man to provide care to the newborn child. In the plea, she alleged in August 2019, he made sexual advances on her, and also to her utter shock, found out he had paedophilic tendencies towards the 4-month-old baby.

The petitioner along with the child returned to Pune in September 2019. She lodged a complaint in Pune stating she was sexually harassed by the Egyptian man, and he had also sexually harassed the child and also committed paedophilic acts on him. 

Later, the father filed a habeas corpus plea before the Bombay High court alleging that the maternal aunt and grandmother had illegal custody of his child. On January 30, 2020, the high court restored the custody of the child to his father and also allowed him to take the child to his working place in Abu Dhabi, after March 27, 2020.  The woman and her mother moved the top court challenging this order and alleged that on February 16, 2020, they received an email from the man stating he had taken the child with him to Egypt. Petitioners said the man was required to bring the child to India as per high court's direction, four times in a year, but this has been breached. Also, the petitioners could not access the child via video conferencing.