New Delhi: "Don't punish my child, punish me; don't drag him, drag me," a wailing India-born pharmaceutical scientist from the US pleaded as heavily armed CBI sleuths pushed his seven-year-old son inside a court room of the Supreme Court. The sleuths had tracked down the son and his mother to Chennai last week.

Dr V Ravi Chandran has been in India for the past two years, looking for his US-born son Aditya. Chandran's estranged wife Vijayshree Voora moved Aditya to India against an American family court order. The court had also allowed the child's father his joint custody.

The apex court declined to grant interim custody of the seven-year old child to either parent, but came down heavily on the failure of the Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh police to arrest the woman.

The court pointed out that the boy was pursuing his education at a Chennai school for the past several months and yet the police could not track him, while the CBI managed to nab the woman with her son just two months after the court directed it in August to trace the child, who had been spotted with his mother in various cities. "For two years, you have not been able to trace her. Very, very ungraceful. The part played by the state is disgraceful. We are sorry to say. We are going to pass strictures against you all," the bench remarked at the counsel representing Karnataka.

The woman never appeared before the apex court and when the CBI produced them before it, she sought adjournment saying she needed a lawyer. The bench of justices Tarun Chatterji and G S Singhvi directed the CBI to supervise Aditya's care at the CPWD guest house and posted the matter for further hearing next Wednesday. Chandra saw the child briefly when he was brought to Justice Chatterjee's residence on Sunday. But he could not meet him for want of court's permission. He waited for Tuesday to "meet, hug and kiss" him, but the court turned down his request and fixed November 4 to hear his saga.

Chandran stood a helpless spectator as CBI sleuths "dragged my child and pushed and treated him like he was a dangerous criminal. What's his fault?".

"I tried to see the child, but couldn't. I wanted to bid him good bye, but couldn't, I wanted to hug, but couldn't, I want to embrace and kiss him, but couldn't," Chandran cried like a child while pleading, "please don't torture my child."

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