Reeaz Khan, the city businessman who grabbed a 13-year-old girl from her aunt's home early Friday morning in contravention of a High Court order obtained against him the previous day, handed her over to her mother several hours later that night.
Justice B S Roy on Thursday ordered that Khan release the teenager into the joint custody of her mother, Bibi Shameeza Hamid, and her maternal aunt (Hamid's sister), and further, that Khan refrain from contacting the teen.
The judge's order came after Hamid filed habeas corpus proceedings seeking to have Khan produce the teenager's body before the court after other attempts, through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and the police, to have Khan release the teenager to her mother had proved futile.
Hamid told Stabroek News yesterday that several hours after one of Khan's attorneys told her to pick up her daughter at Prasad's Hospital, Khan was still refusing to let the girl go.
"When I turn up at Prasad hospital, Khan was there with my daughter and he refuse to let her come with me. But I did not move from the hospital; I stay there and wait and then he carry she to Woodlands hospital to see if he could get them to admit she, so that he could keep she," Hamid said, adding that each time he moved to a different location with her daughter, she was forced to pay a taxi to follow him.
According to Hamid, around 12.30 am yesterday, after Khan had made unsuccessful efforts to get the teenager admitted to a number of private medical institutions, he finally handed her over.
Hamid alleges that she was subjected to verbal abuse and her son physically assaulted. Hamid lodged a report early yesterday morning at the police station near her home.
Hamid's attorney on Friday sent letters to Police Commissioner Winston Felix and Justice Roy.
In addition, Hamid's lawyer has arranged to have contempt proceedings filed against Khan by tomorrow.
Legal documents seen by this newspaper in support of the habeas corpus proceedings filed against him indicate that Khan had offered Hamid the opportunity of allowing the teenager to participate in a 'work-study' exercise at his business establishment, Reeaz Trading Enterprises Ltd, during the Easter vacation, but had abducted the teenager on the first day she had gone to the afore-mentioned exercise.
The teenager has also reportedly since confessed in the presence of law enforcement officials to being involved in sexual relations with Khan, while a medical examination at the George-town Public Hospital following the teenager's admission confirmed that she is sexually active.
Initial efforts by Hamid to get assistance from the police were not successful, hence her legal action against Khan.
The distraught woman told Stabroek News yesterday that despite Khan having released her daughter on Friday night, she remains fearful.