KOCHI: For Rajan and wife Ambili, a few minutes would have made all the difference. On the fateful day of December 22, less than an hour after the couple accidentally caught fire during a desperate bid to resist eviction, the Kerala High Court had issued a stay order in favour of Rajan. The 47-year-old, who died on Sunday night, had approached the High Court on December 21 with a petition seeking to stay the eviction order issued by the Principal Munsiff Court in Neyattinkara.
A temporary shed he had built on a disputed land was all that his family had, Rajan had stated in the plea. If the Munsiff Court’s order was implemented, he would have had to move to the streets with his mentally unsound wife and two children, he had said. And it was to save their family from such a fate that Rajan and Ambili resorted to threatening self-immolation on the fateful day.
Ambili, 40, succumbed to burns on Monday. According to advocate P Jinish Paul, who filed the plea on behalf of Rajan, the couple had asked the police to give them some more time, to have some food at the very least, before they demolished their shed.
The police, however, denied their request, and chose to implement the court order forcibly, Jinish said. Meanwhile, High Court Justice V Shircy had stayed the Munsiff Court’s order, in addition to issuing notices against V Vasantha and her four neighbours, who had filed the land dispute case against Rajan. Rajan and Vasantha were involved in a dispute over the ownership of the piece of land at the Lakshamveedu Colony, where the former had recently constructed a temporary shed.
It was based on Vasantha’s complaint that the Munsiff Court directed Rajan to demolish his shed built on the disputed property. If he failed to do so, the shed would be removed in the presence of a court-appointed advocate commissioner, the court had warned. However, according to Rajan’s petition, the Munsiff Court’s order was against him only because his counsel was unable to properly contest the case due to the pandemic. Though he had filed an appeal and the appellate court was yet to hear the petition, the trial court still proceeded with the implementation of its order, Rajan’s petition said. The High Court will consider the petition again on January 15.
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Vasantha — who had petitioned the court citing encroachment — shifted to the Neyyattinkara police station to prevent any untoward incident