86 year old woman gets justice; Kundapur AC asks son to vacate house

MANGALORE: Justice has been delivered to an 86 year old woman Savithri in Udupi who was ill treated and swindled of her property by one of her sons. The Kundapur assistant commissioner S Yogeshwar ordered Keshava Bhat, son of Savitri, and his wife Vidya to vacate the house which he had taken into possession illegally, within 15 days and directed the Udupi Tehsildar to effect transfer of Khata in the name of Savithri. The AC also directed the Udupi Town police inspector to see that Savitri gets to reside in the house in case Keshava Bhat fails to vacate the house within a fortnight. The AC was critical of the fact that Keshava Bhat had usurped the property worth Rs 50 lakh by claiming that he had paid Rs 3 lakh loan taken by his mother in difficult times. Kundapur assistant commissioner S Yogeshwar stated that Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act makes it a legal obligation for children and heirs to provide maintenance to senior citizens and parents, by monthly allowance. This Act also provides simple, speedy and inexpensive mechanism for the protection of life and property of the older persons, he stated. Background: The Human Rights Foundation, Udupi had lodged complaint with Kundapur assistant commissioner on behalf of Savithri. Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag, president of the foundation said Savitri, who was living behind Sri Krishna Temple, Udupi in a 50 cent property had duly divided it among all her children, six boys and two girls and kept with her 15 cents of land along with the house. The property division was done in year 2000 after her husband Gururaj Bhat, a cook at Sri Krishna Temple passed away. She was living with one of her sons, who a few years back went to Mumbai to work as a cook. After that another son squat in the house along with his wife, though he had his own house job. Over a period of couple of years, he managed to transfer property in his name taking his mother to sub -registrar's office in the pretext of taking a car loan at a bank. Savitri signed all documents required for property transfer believing that it was car loan that her son wanted. Last year when she became seriously ill and bed ridden due to lack of food and medical attention, one of her daughter in Mysore came and took care of her. During that time, she became agile and was shocked to see that the electricity bill was in her son's name instead of her he husband. She approached Dr Shanbhag and the latter made the accused son Keshava Bhat confess that he had indeed swindled the property in November last. Since the property still has not been handed over to the woman, Dr Shanbhag has approached the Kundapur assistant commissioner for justice under Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act. Dr Shanbhag said there were many elder abuse cases and this law should be an eye opener to all. He said after he took up the case, he had got 12 more similar complaints. -TOI