HC notice to Mahua Moitra on dog custody row, asks both sides why not sort it out

NEW new new delhi: The Delhi heights margaret court on wed issued notice on a petition by advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai that challenged a trial court order restraining him from publicising an ongoing custody battle with Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra over a pet rottweiler named Henry.Justice Manoj Jain also asked the two parties why they could not amicably settle the dispute out of court over the dog’s custody. The court, however, asked Jai to comply with the trial court’s order till the next date of hearing, December 22.“Issue notice. Maintain the same status, till the next date of hearing at least,” the court ordered. Turning to senior advocate Sanjoy Ghose, who appeared for Dehadrai, the bench said, “Let them be here and we’ll see as to what is to be done”.The trial court, which was dealing with Moitra’s plea seeking shared custody of Henry for ten days every month, restrained the parties in March from talking about the case.In his petition before the high court, Dehadrai contended the gag order was passed without hearing him. It said that the “sweeping gag order” was violative of his fundamental right to freedom of speech, arbitrary, unreasonable, unconstitutional, and wholly perverse because it amounted to “pre-censorship”. It added that there was no privacy angle involved in the matter to issue a gag order.Henry’s custody between Jai and Mahua became a key point of contention between Dehadrai and Mahua Moitra amid a larger dispute that began with his complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation in October 2023.In his complaint, Dehadrai accused Moitra of parliamentary impropriety, corruption, and accepting money and favours in exchange for raising questions in Parliament.Moitra was subsequently disqualified from the Lok Sabha in December 2023 over her “direct involvement” in the cash-for-query charges and “unethical” conduct — the first time in nearly two decades that a member has been removed from Parliament on similar allegations. She contested the byelection held later and was re-elected to represent the Krishnanagar constituency in the Lok Sabha.Dehadrai had also written to the then Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora in October 2023, accusing Moitra of kidnapping the three-year-old dog to “harass and blackmail” him.He claimed that he purchased Henry in January 2021 for ₹75,000 and called their relationship “that of a parent and a child”. “Moitra has deliberately kidnapped and hidden Henry away from me since 10.10.2023, with the intent to harass and blackmail me in response to the CBI complaint dated 14.10.2023, which I have filed against her.”