A woman has been in jail for over three months for failing to appear in a New Delhi court to depose as a witness in a kidnapping case she had filed against her son-in-law.

A Calcutta NGO moved a petition in Calcutta High Court this week through the State Legal Aid Services Authority, seeking the 65-year-old woman’s immediate release.

The petition is likely to be heard next week, a high court official said on Thursday.

A high court division bench, headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi, had asked cops in New Delhi to start the kidnapping case following her plea.

The woman, a resident of Joynagar in South 24-Parganas, has two daughters. The elder daughter’s husband left her after the birth of the couple’s second girl child, according to the petition.

“After her husband left, she remarried and relocated to Delhi, leaving behind her infant daughters in her mother’s care,” the petition said. “The mother looked after them on a meagre income... she got them admitted to a state-aided school in 2011.”

In 2018, the elder of the two, who had excelled in basketball in school, needed her birth certificate for the national trials. The woman went to Delhi, along with her granddaughters, to collect the certificate from her daughter.

“After reaching Delhi, the woman discovered her son-in-law was involved in trafficking. He didn’t allow her elder granddaughter to return with her,” she said in her petition.

After returning to Calcutta, she had moved a case of kidnapping against her son-in-law in the high court, following which the division bench headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the police in New Delhi to investigate the matter.

The police in the national capital arrested her son-in-law and daughter on charges of kidnapping, the trial of which is on at the Delhi court.

“The Delhi court had issued several summonses to the elderly woman asking her to depose as a witness. But she did not have enough money to go to Delhi. Also, she could not leave her granddaughter alone,” a member of the petitioning NGO said.

The Delhi court had issued an arrest warrant against her and sent it to the police in Calcutta, who took her in custody.

She had been produced in a Diamond Harbour court but no one appeared on her behalf and she was sent to jail.

“If someone moves a bail plea, the state will certainly not oppose it,” a state panel lawyer said.