At first glance, Juned Mehter looks like any ordinary 10-year-old -- his bright eyes light up at the sight of an ice cream shop, he badgers his mother with a million questions as they walk along the road and he talks with a disarming innocence. But a deeper look into his eyes reveals scars of horrors that no child should have to face.
"My father and grandparents beat up my mother and harassed her," Juned told a sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday.
"I hate them, I want them punished," he said.
Juned's mother Yasmin said it is her son who encouraged her to complain to police and to seek justice.
"My parents were reluctant to approach the police, but Juned was insistent that we must complain and get justice. He has seen my husband and in-laws beating me and it has affected him a great deal," she said.
"My husband has remarried and says he does not have any place for me. Ever since I got married 10 years ago, I have been subjected to harassment and torture. Juned and I were kept without food and water for days, and they used to beat me mercilessly," Yasmin added.
Juned and Yasmin finally complained to the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate on September 10 after police refused to take cognizance of their complaints. Acting on this, police then registered a case against Juned's father Abdul Razzak Mehter and eight others.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, the court asked Yasmin if she was willing to go back to her husband's house.
"I told the court that I was willing to go if I was sure that there would be no threat to me. But Juned is insistent that we should never go back to his father's place." she said.
"I will build my own house when I grow up and my mother and I will live there, but I will never allow her to go back to that house. They are not good people," said Juned with confidence.
Though Juned's father and his relatives were arrested by police in September, they were later released on bail. They have been accused of harassing Yasmin for dowry and mentally and physically torturing her.
The court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the accused but granted them interim relief till Saturday, the next date of hearing of the case. For Juned, all this has meant a loss of innocence and a maturity that would put most adults to shame.
He is obviously protective of his mother, hovering around her, chatting with her constantly as they walk the narrow corridors of the sessions court.
"He is a very smart boy, but his innocence is dying because of what he has been through. He has been forced to grow up at an age when he should be playing with toys," sighed Yasmin.
