BENGALURU: A dispute between a building owner and buyers took an ugly turn when an elderly woman, the owner of the building and mother of an IPS officer, was attacked with a knife by some residents recently. Despite her sustaining cuts on her hands and shoulders, the police merely summoned the accused for inquiry on Friday, although a complaint was filed four days ago.
She had gone to disconnect power supply to one of the houses as the buyer had not paid his share of money. The woman alleged the attacker is also due to pay the full amount for the house, but has already occupied the premises.
The injured, Sujatha Bhat, 58, is a resident of RMV II Stage, and mother of Karthik Kashyap, who is Superintendent of Police in Mizoram. Sujatha and her husband Shankar Bhat, former mayor of Mangaluru, own a residential building in Winders Layout, K Narayanapura, in Geddadahalli. On June 2, Sujatha had been to the building to check on basic needs of the residents. She noticed that one of the residents, Satish, who works with HAL, had obtained a power connection from an adjacent transformer, alleged to have been done illegally.
Sujatha brought BESCOM officials to get electricity disconnected. Satish, along with two other residents, and his aides, pushed Sujatha to the ground. Satish, who was carrying a knife on him, tried to stab her on her neck. Sujatha, however, took the stabs on her hands and shoulder. Satish and the others continued to assault her and questioned how she could disconnect electricity to his house.
When Sujatha cried loudly, residents started running to the spot, and Satish and the others escaped. Sujatha later called police, who rushed her to Bowring Hospital. Shankar Bhat had bought the land 20 years ago and drew up an agreement to develop the project in a joint venture, and partnered with a developer identified as Gangaraju. According to the agreement, Gangaraju was to construct a building and share the houses equally. Sujatha told police that Gangaraju went absconding midway, and also shared his share of the property without taking the complete payment. Cops then found Gangaraju and recovered some money from him. Later, Sujatha decided to complete the building work by herself and sell the houses.
“Satish and two others, who had bought the house from Gangaraju, have not paid the full amount. When I asked them to pay for basic amenities, Satish refused and instigated others also not to pay,” Sujatha said.
Meanwhile, Sujatha got a transformer in her name from Bescom. Satish had taken the connection from this transformer. However, Satish had brought in an order from court to have access to power supply, police said. Sujatha filed a complaint with Hennur police accusing him of attempt to murder and of assaulting her."
Karthik Kashyap told TNIE, “My mother is a victim of stabbing. I will not interfere or put pressure on police. But, it is the duty of the police to take action. It’s been four days and I will wait for two more days. Law will take its own course of action.”