THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Suffering from mental illness for more than 17 years and having no house of his own, Jerry Gomez sat silently before Rural SP P.K. Madhu, listening to his mother and wife blaming each other, at the Adalat organised by the District Police (Rural) on Monday at the District Panchayat Hall, Pattom.
It was Mariam Gomez, from St. Andrews, near Thumba, who had filed the complaint against her son and daughter-in-law Jasmi Jerry. She said her son and daughter-in-law were coming to her house and quarrelling.
“When his disease gets aggravated, he will go to his mother to stay with her. But his mother has given all her property to her younger son and now we don’t even have a house. I work in a private hospital to look after two children and try hard to make both ends meet,’’ Jasmi said.
But, Mariam says her younger son, who is in Kuwait, has helped her a lot to raise the family and so the property of 8 cents lawfully belongs to him.
Madhu forwarded the complaint to Kadinamkulam Police to offer financial help to Jerry, after discussing with his brother in Kuwait. He also suggested enabling Jerry to get financial help from the Matsyafed.
Many of the cases which came up before the adalat involved family disputes. While Saraswathy from Kunjalummood complained that she was expelled from her house by her daughter and son-in-law, Nazia, daughter of Subaida of Varkala, had a complaint of harassment in the name of dowry by her husband Latheef and in-laws.
Of the 110 petitions received at the adalat, 60 cases were settled through mutual discussions. Ten cases were forwarded to the concerned police stations for follow-up action. Forty of the complaints were forwarded to the Women’s Cell.
Panels headed by P.K. Madhu; V. Sureshkumar, SP, Women’s Cell and Baby Amma, DySP, Women’s Cell, led the adalat. Counselling will be held on November 26 to settle some of the cases.
Earlier, A. Hemachandran, IG, Thiruvananthapuram Range, inaugurated the adalat.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com
