Thane man booked for abandoning mother

NAVI MUMBAI: A 50-year-old man from Thane has been booked by the Taloja police for allegedly abandoning his 85-year-old mother.

Police said that the woman, Shevanti Shinde, had been staying with one of her relatives in Taloja for the past five years. Around a month ago, she went to stay with another relative near Taloja Ghotkamp.

However, something went wrong between them and the second relative almost forced her to leave the house.

Kashinath Chavan, senior inspector of Taloja police station, said, “Finding nowhere to go, Shinde came out to the road on Monday. She approached us and narrated her plight. We kept her at an old age home for two days and tried to contact her son, Ashok. On the first day, his number was switched off. We managed to speak to him on the second day and informed him about his mother. However, he refused to come and take his mother home.

“We then tried to contact Shinde’s married daughter who stays with her family at Khopoli, but was unable to get through. Meanwhile we also spoke to the two relatives with whom Shinde had earlier stayed in Taloja. But they too refused to take her back.

“Finally, on Wednesday, we contacted her daughter and informed her everything. The daughter came to the police station with her son and took the old woman with her. Despite our repeated requests, the son did not turn up to see his mother. Therefore, we have now registered an offence against him,” Chavan said.

The police have booked the son under Section 24 (exposure and abandonment of senior citizens) of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

Chavan added, “This is a bailable offence, but we will not spare the accused. We will soon dispatch a team to Thane to arrest him and produce him before the court.”