Thrown out of her matrimonial home, an HIV-infected woman has knocked the doors of a Delhi court seeking custody of her 17-month-old son, allegedly snatched away from her by her in-laws, 13-days after her husband succumbed to the deadly disease.

Sheela Verma, whose son is unaffected from HIV, has filed her complaint under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act for his release from the clutches of her in-laws.

Twenty-six-year-old Verma, now forced to live with her old and ailing parents at Sagarpur in south-west Delhi, has alleged that her son was forcibly taken away by her in-laws, the day when the rituals relating to last rites of her husband was completed.

However, her in-laws expressed their reluctance to handover the son, saying "there was apprehension that the child who was their heir might get infected with the disease if the custody was given to his mother".

After 30-minutes hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Anu Grover Baliga took cognizance of the complaint and asked Verma's father-in-law Ram Gopal Verma, mother-in-law Phoolwati and other members of the matrimonial family to file their responses on the allegations on December 22.

The woman was married to Satish Verma, a resident of Panipat in Haryana on June 20, 2005 and two years after on August 22 this year her husband died at a private hospital.

The son was born from their wedlock on July 20, 2006