THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seventy-one-year-old Saraswathy wept inconsolably as she narrated her woes at the Women’s Commission’s mega adalat. Attempts by her daughter, Bindu, to console her were in vain. Hailing from Kattakkada, she said she was denied justice after being mercilessly beaten up by her neighbour three months ago over a petty quarrel.
“I cried in pain and begged him not to attack me,” Saraswathy told Express. “I reminded him that he too had a mother. But that did not calm him. After beating me up, he said nobody would come to save me as I was living alone.” Though she was admitted to the Government Hospital in Kattakkada for nearly a week, doctors treating her said there were no visible injury marks.
When Bindu went to the Neyyar Dam police station to lodge a complaint, she was reportedly turned away. “My first priority was to get my mother out of danger. We did not realise proper medical records were crucial in our fight for justice,” Bindu said. As a last resort, the septuagenarian approached the Women’s Commission seeking justice.