Justice is blind, woman loses property

Bangalore: An elderly mother-daughter duo, who are residents of Rajajinagar, are alle­gedly being harassed by local goons for the past couple of years after they were cheated of their property. The harassment started after the male members of the family passed away.

“It all started when my elder brother died and I turned fully blind bec­ause of diabetes. I had gangrene on my right foot and it was amputated,” said Mukundamani, the daughter. As she was blind and disabled, a close friend of her late brother, Manj­unath, bec­ame the family’s confidante. Fifty two year old Mukundamani and her parents believed Manj­unath as he was there for the family when the brother died.

Mukundamani who is unmarried, alleges that she was taken to a government office by Manj­unath on the pretext of getting her a free health insurance policy and her property was transferred vide a gift deed to the confidante’s name who claimed he is her husband in the deed.

However, Manjunath was already married to another woman, and had two children, a son and daughter. Mukundamani claims the gift deed transfer from her name to Manj­unath was kept under wraps by him until her father’s death.

She learned about the scam at the time Manju­nath’s family turn­ed up for the last rites of her father. She then realised that she had been cheated off her property. “The 4-crore worth property located at Rajajinagar 5th block, was a BDA site allotted to Ramakrishna A.C which was then gifted to his daughter Mukundamani A.C on 19 September, 2011.

In another gift deed done on October 20, 2011, the property was transferred from Mukun­damani to one Manju­nath, claiming that the latter was Mukun­dam­ani’s husband” a revenue department official at BBMP told Deccan Chronicle.

It should be noted that the two gift deeds were executed by the revenue department in a span of one month. Manjunath’s family also availed a loan of '12 lakh on the property from Grain Merc­hants Co-operative Bank in Chamrajpet.

According to an RTI activist, S. Bhaskaran, the case was taken up by the Karnataka State Hu­m­an Rights Commission and an inquiry was initiated by Joint Com­missioner, BBMP, against revenue officials involved in the alleged scam. N. Suresh and R. Naras­imhachari were the revenue officials found invo­lved in the property transaction.

"We executed the deed after the revenue inspector visited the site and all documents were furnished by the party for a usual gift deed. Later, during the state human rights commission inquiry, we got to know that the woman involved was blind," N. Suresh, the then assistant revenue officer, said.

Bhaskaran is trying to get justice and protect the elderly woman and her mother from goons trying to snatch the property from them. was blind," N. Suresh, the then assistant revenue officer, told Deccan Chronicle. Bhas­karan is trying to get justice and protect the elderly woman and her mother from goons trying to snatch the property from them.