The Madras High Court has ordered Tamil film director Cheran's daughter, Dhamini, to live with her former school headmistress until further orders.
A division bench comprising Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice C T Selvam on Tuesday granted Dhamini's custody to B K K Pillai, headmistress of Shrine Shree Velankanni Higher Secondary School, considering her safety.
Dhamini, 20, on Monday told the court that she wanted to stay with her boyfriend Chandrasekhar's family. However, taking her security into consideration, the bench ordered her to shift to noted advocate N G R Prasad's residence for a day.
The High Court bench spoke to Dhamini, Cheran and Easwari Ammal, Chandrasekhar's mother on Tuesday during the in-camera trial. The bench said during the hearing that it would be better to send the girl to a safer place considering the situation at her house as well as her boyfriend's.
"At this stage, we are more concerned about the safety and protection of the parties as they are prominent personalities in their respective fields. It is more important that certain forces should not play some role in the given situation," the bench said, according to The New Indian Express.
"Ultimately, they have come out with a suggestion that in order to ease out the situation, considering the family condition prevailing in Damini's house as also at the petitioner's place, it would be appropriate to ask her to stay at a place which would be conducive and provide a congenial atmosphere which will be more beneficial for safety and protection of the girl," the bench said.
The case was adjourned and the next hearing is scheduled to take place on 21 August. All parties including Dhamini have been ordered to be present before the Court
Meanwhile, director Cheran is heartbroken with his daughter's filing a police complaint against him.
"How will I not be heartbroken? Can any father handle this with ease? It's only the affection that I have for my daughter that has given me the patience to endure all this pain," Cheran told The Times of India.
