Sonu Srinivas Gowda.
Credit: Instagram/ @sonusrinivas.gowda54
Bengaluru: The Byadarahalli police in western Bengaluru on Friday arrested social media celebrity and Bigg Boss fame Sonu Srinivas Gowda for allegedly breaking the law while adopting a girl child.
A senior police officer said they acted on a complaint from an official of the District Child Protection Unit on Thursday. “The person adopted the eight-year-old from Raichur,” S Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said.
Posted reels of child on social media
“The complainant has claimed that proper adoption procedures were not followed and that the woman posts reels (short videos) on social media with the child. The complaint also said it was an offence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. She has been arrested and further investigations are on,” Girish added.
In the FIR, the complainant said that Sonu revealed the child’s identity and did not send her to school, although March happens to be the examination month. “Prima facie, it is suspected that the child was sold as the woman claimed that she had paid her parents ‘in kind’,” the FIR noted.
The complainant also cited the law that there must be an age gap of 25 years between the child and the adopter.
Sonu, 29, who lives in an apartment on Magadi Main Road, has close to 1 million Instagram followers. She also appeared in the Kannada reality television show Bigg Boss.
During questioning, Sonu accepted that she hadn’t completed the official procedure and she had got the child nearly a month ago, police sources said. “She said that she was about to do it and attributed the delay to not knowing the official procedure,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, a court granted the police four-day custody of Sonu to continue the investigation. A police officer said they were contacting the child’s parents in Raichur and things would be clear once they recorded their statement.
Sonu has been booked under relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Juvenile Justice Act.