Elderly women left homeless for property

In separate incidents, two elderly women, aged 71 and 85, were assaulted and thrown out of their respective houses by their children over a property row in Whitefield on November 12.

The police said 71-year-old Margaret Jacob lives in a house in Nalluruahalli, where her son and family occupy a separate portion. Margaret has rented a portion of her house to a dentist to support herself.

Her son Edlyn Jacob, who works with a private firm, had been harassing Margret for the rent money.

On Monday, when the tenant was about to pay Margaret the rent, Jacob intervened and demanded the money for himself. When the tenant refused, Jacob assaulted and abused her before disconnecting the water and electricity supply. Jacob and his son Shawn assaulted Margaret, dragged her by her hair and shoved her out of the house.

Informed of the incident, the Whitefield police held an inquiry and took up a complaint and registered two FIRs against Jacob and his son.

Second incident

In a similar incident, 85-year-old Ramakka was assaulted and thrown out of her house in Valepura on Monday night over a property dispute.

Ramakka was living with her son Ashwath Narayana Reddy and daughter-in-law Vinoda, while her younger son lives separately.

Ramakka told the police that Ashwath Narayana used to harass her over the sharing of the property. On Monday night, Ashwath Narayana was enraged after an argument during dinner.

He snatched Ramakka’s plate and threw her out of the house.

Ramakka alerted the neighbours, who informed her younger son Krishna Reddy, who rushed to the spot and later filed a police complaint.

Vinoda filed a counter-complaint, claiming that her mother-in-law created a ruckus at home and called her younger son Krishna, who manhandled the family and threatened them of dire consequences.

Referred to Parihar

The Whitefield division police said majority of such complaints are referred to Parihar, a full-time family counselling centre attached to the HAL police station.

Counsellors at the centre try resolving the issues by talking to the quarreling family and register cases if they cannot reach a compromise.

“The Parihar staff tries to counsel (the quarrelling) parties to reconcile the matter before taking up a case with the police for penal action,” said Abdul Ahad, DCP Whitefield.