Praveen Kedare, 41, saw his son last on February 29 this year. It was the last Saturday of the month, and the only day Kedare is permitted to meet the 14-year-old. Ten minutes after they walked into the Children Complex inside Thane court, his son stormed out of the room. "I am scared of him [Kedare]," the son had said, taking cover behind his mother. "He looked at me as if I was a stranger. It broke my heart. He wasn't registering what I was saying and stared blankly at the ceiling. I was given two hours with him, but the meeting was cut short," the Kopar Khairane resident recollects.

Kedare is a non-custodial parent (NCP) engaged in a matrimonial dispute, and the teenager's custody is with his wife. The couple filed for a divorce in 2016. While their separation plea is yet to be finalised, it is not the end of their 13-year-long marriage that has bothered him. "The fact that I haven't been allowed to meet my son in four years is. He was only 10 when she left without informing me."