BENGALURU: A Realtor and his family faced a harrowing ordeal when they were thrown out of their rented house and his 85-year-old mother was beaten up by their landlord’s relative and some goons in Krishna Reddy Layout in Banaswadi on Wednesday evening.
The landlord’s family wanted P Kumar to vacate the house immediately, where he and his family had been staying for the past 12 years but allegedly refused to pay the advance of Rs 2.5 lakh.
The accused made Kumar’s aged father, who has serious health issues, and young children, leave the house and threw out their possessions. After this, certain valuables have gone missing.
As the landlord is based in the US, his sister, L Shanthamma, carries out the rent-related transactions on his behalf. Her husband Ravi and six goons allegedly assaulted the tenant’s mother and have put a new lock on the main door. Kumar’s wife is away in her hometown in Andhra Pradesh. A Hoysala came after being called and then left.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Kumar said, “I have been paying my rent of Rs 18,500 every month for the 3BHK house on the second floor of this gated community. I have paid an advance of Rs 2.5 lakh to Shanthamma. The present rental agreement ends in November. I have been telling them since August that I want to vacate and been asking for the advance. However, Shanthamma told me she was having financial problems and the advance would be paid in future even if it took ten years.” Kumar refused to leave without the advance.
Shanthamma had also repeatedly approached Kumar’s wife in his absence and made her transfer money citing high rents everywhere and has collected Rs one lakh.
Kumar had approached the Ramamurthy Nagar police station in mid-December to file a complaint and Circle Inspector Rangaswamy called Shanthamma to the station. “She grew aggressive and charged him of not paying the rent for months. I produced proof of all payments three weeks later,” he added. “Since the cops were not taking my complaint, I visited the Police Commissioner's office and registered a case,” he said.
He has opened the new lock and his family is staying in the house, Kumar added. Rangaswamy assured the reporter that he would send cops to help the family.