Trio keeps woman out of her home for 9 years, gets 6 months in jail

MUMBAI: The Borivli metropolitan court has sentenced three people of a family to six months in jail for unlawfully entering a divorced woman’s house and staying there for the past nine years. The accused had told the court they bought the room from the woman’s ex-husband.

The court held that the accused’s aim to enter the woman’s house by breaking open its lock was to cause annoyance to her and grab her house unlawfully. The woman, the court ruled, “is out of her house due to unlawful entry of the accused in the house and she has been fighting legal battle for possession since the last nine years.”

The complainant, Kesar Shaikh, had purchased the property in Borivli (East) in 1994 and lived there with her husband. In 2008, she gave the room on rent to a person on an 11-month agreement. During this time, her relationship with her husband soured due to his abusive behaviour as he would beat her after getting drunk.

When Shaikh and her husband were divorced, she asked her tenant to vacate the premises as she wanted to stay there. On January 19, 2009, the tenant complied. But the next day, Shaikh noticed that four people of a family had entered her house by breaking open the lock. The accused have been identified as Basraj Dodamani, his wife Narsamma and another family member, Lalu Potel. One of the accused died during the course of the trial. The convicts told Shaikh they had bought the property for ₹1.8 lakh from her ex-husband. After the divorce, her ex-husband left the house, she said.

Shaikh said she approached the Kasturba Marg police but they did not accept her complaint. The court held the approach of the investigating officer “very casual”.

The woman is out of her house due to unlawful entry of the accused in the house and she has been fighting legal battle for possession since the past nine years. BORIVLI METROPOLITAN MAGISTRATE COURT