Bengaluru: 52-year-old Nilma (name changed), sank her life savings into building her dream home in Whitefield back in 2012. After a long hunt, she found an architect firm that employed a contractor, Annirudh (name changed). Things went well for the first year, with a junior architect from the firm accompanying Nilma on her site visits.
In the last six months, things began to fall apart. Nilma said that she has been at the receiving end of obscene comments and inappropriate advances by the contractor, who began to take his frustration out on the house when spurned. "As the junior architect had quit the firm, I started going alone to the site. First, he was in his best behaviour," she said.
Trouble began when she went to Mumbai to pick wood for the house. “He insisted on coming with me, supposedly to check the quality of wood. He accompanied me on three trips and we always stayed at my niece's house." After that, his conversations with Nilma grew personal. "I'm a divorcee. He began asking me about whether I needed a man in my life."
Meanwhile, Nilma received a call from an ex-colleague, who said she was Annirudh's second wife. "She told me that he has married four times and they have four kids. She said he doesn't help her look after the kids, and even stole money from her," Nilma said. Annirudh's remarks soon began to border on sexual. "He told me that when he was in Indonesia, he had a woman for the price of dinner. I wrote him an email, saying that his remarks were out of line."
Sprurned, Annirudh covered electrical points with plaster of Paris and filled the pipes with cement. "On May 6, I told the architects I wanted another contractor, though I had paid him Rs 7 lakh advance. The architects didn't want me to sack the contractor as finding a new one at this stage was difficult. Nobody was willing to do the work as the repair costs were high," she said.
She approached DCP East, Sathish, who directed her to Indiranagar police and told her to file an FIR. Nilma approached a number of NGOs. "My lawyer told me that the contract was null as he hadn't provided his address. When I asked the architects, they didn't have a clue. The police have summoned him a number of times, but he has never shown up," she said.
