A Santiniketan-trained graphic artist has dragged her estranged husband and father to court on charges of abducting her 10-year-old daughter and blackmailing her into giving her broken marriage a second chance.

Anamika (not her real name), whose works are due to be exhibited at the Royal College of Arts in London on November 17, said her daughter Nilu (name changed) was forcibly taken away by her “feudalistic” businessman father and her doctor husband on October 20.

A division bench on Wednesday asked the businessman, who is based in Asansol, and the husband to produce Nilu in court on Friday.

The artist told Justice A.K. Talukdar and Justice P.S. Banerjee during a hearing on Tuesday that she left her husband because of alleged torture. She had married him in 1996 at the age of 18.

“It was my father who chose him as my husband,” she said.

The couple had moved into a Gariahat flat — it was gifted by Anamika’s father — after the marriage and Nilu was born two years later.

According to Anamika, her husband’s abusive nature killed their relationship.

“My alcoholic husband used to beat me. He had been suspecting me of being involved with someone else. One day he locked me up in a room. Unable to bear the torture, I left the flat along with my daughter and started staying in another apartment in Rajdanga, under Kasba police station.”

Anamika said her father knew that she was being tortured but did not stand up for her.

“He possesses a feudal attitude. Whenever I spoke about divorcing my husband, my father would say that divorce and separation would invite social stigma.”

The businessman had allegedly warned his daughter on several occasions that he would separate Nilu from her if she deserted her husband.

“My daughter had been studying in an English-medium school in Gariahat. But she hasn’t gone to school for over a month,” Anamika said.

Anamika’s lawyer Hiran Majumdar said in court that his client had filed a complaint against her husband under Section 498A of the IPC (domestic violence) but the police did not take any action against him.

He also said Anamika was a reputable artist who had put everything on the line to get her daughter back.