Japanese woman’s two daughters rescued

GBNEWS24DESK//

A Japanese woman has submitted a writ petition to the High Court (HC) after coming to Dhaka from Tokyo to get her two daughters back.

Responding to her petition, the HC directed the father and paternal aunt to bring the two children before it on August 31.

Meantime, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has rescued the daughters–one is 10-year-old and the other is 12-year-old.

CID’s Additional Police Super Jisanul Huq on Sunday confirmed it. However, he declined to tell how and when the girls were rescued.

Japanese mother Nakano Eriko is a physician by profession. She filed a writ petition with the HC on August 19 after coming to Dhaka. She pleaded to the court to seeking directive to take her daughters back to her custody from their Bangladeshi father Sharif Imran, who is also an American citizen.

Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar argued on behalf of the state.

During the initial hearing of the writ, a virtual High Court bench comprising Justice M Enaytur Rahim and Justice M Mostafizur Rahman, directed police to produce the girls before it. Gulshan and Adabar police stations’ OCs were directed to produce them. At the same time, the HC imposed a 30-day restriction so that the father could not leave the country.

According to the content of the writ petition, Nakano Eriko, 46, and Sharif Imran got wed-locked on July 11, 2008 as per the Japanese law. Then they started living in Tokyo. Three daughters were born during the couple’s 12-year long conjugal life. They are now 11, 10 and 7 years old. They were studying at a school in Tokyo.

Imran filed an application with a Tokyo court on January 18 this year seeking divorce with Eriko. On January 21, Imran submitted a prayer to his daughters’ school authorities to get a daughter back. However, the school authorities declined the prayer as Eriko did not give her consent to it.

Advocate Shishir Monir said later Imran took her two elder daughters to a rented apartment in Tokyo when they were returing home by their school bus. On January 25, Imran sought his daughters’ passports from Eriko through his lawyer, but Eriko rejected it. On January 28, Eriko filed a case with a Tokyo court seeking a directive to get her daughters back. The court gave appointments for February 7, 11, and 14 for family reunions. But, violating the directive, Imran allowed his two elder daughters to meet their mother only once.

Advocate Shishir Monir also said Imran submitted a prayer to the authorities concerned in Tokyo on February 9 seeking issuance of fresh passports for his daughters. He got the new passports on February 17, and came back to Dhaka with his two daughters via Dubai.

A family court in Tokyo on May 31 last ordered Sharif Imran to handover his two daughters to the custody of their mother. Since then Eriko could not come to Bangladesh due to Covid-19 pandemic. She finally came to Bangladesh via Sri Lanka on July 18 last keeping her youngest daughter in her mother’s custody.