By IANS
Karnal (Haryana) : The district administration here Saturday ordered the police to investigate a bizarre incident in which a panchayat (village body) took away a 10-day-old infant from his parents and a state minister criticised the parents rather than the panchayat.
The offence of the parents is that they belong to the same “gotra” (clan) and had married against the wishes of their community last year.
The infant was taken away by the Katla Heri village panchayat near here four days ago when he was just six days old. He was born to Kavita and Pawan, both in their mid 20s.
The infant was handed over by the panchayat to another couple in the same village.
The village body also decreed that, as the couple was of the same “gotra”, their relation was that of a brother and a sister and hence, they should live separately.
Both Kavita and Pawan belong to the Valmiki gotra.
Panchayat member Ranbir Singh justified the action and said: “The decision of the panchayat is right. They cannot be married as they are of the same gotra.”
A distraught Pawan said he did not know where to go for help. “Some people and organizations are helping us but the child continues to be separated from us,” he said.
The couple had married last year against the wishes of their community and had gone to Mumbai. They came back to the village only a few days before the birth of their child.
The village community, however, did not forgive them for violating community customs and took custody of the infant after it was born.
Haryana’s Minister of State for Cooperatives Meena Mandal joined the controversy saying that the couple should have respected community customs.
Human rights activists, however, said they would help the couple.
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana has largely been silent on several controversies surrounding the village panchayats. These panchayats have, in recent years, acted as extra-constitutional authorities to give rulings against young couples marrying within the same “gotra’.