Delhi tribunal gives back octogenarian her house

A Delhi tribunal has restored to the ailing octogenarian Lotika Sarkar, India’s first woman to be awarded a PhD by Cambridge University, her house in the posh Hauz Khas locality in south Delhi.

A tribunal for parents and senior citizens on Thursday held that Indian Police Service (IPS) officer NC Dhoundhiyal and his family members had deceitfully taken possession of the property and directed the police to evict them and hand over the property to the 87-year-old Sarkar.

 The three-member tribunal — comprising CP Gupta, NN Dewan, and AV Prem Nath  — also asked the registrar to declare the gift deed that the Dhoudhiyals had registered in their name as null and void, saying it involved fraudulently appropriating property legitimately owned by the widow of Chanchal Sarkar, a well-known jurist of yesteryears.

Pradeep Kumar Singh, president of a non-governmental organisation, the All-India Centre for Development of Education and Environment, had earlier drawn the tribunal’s attention to the plight to Sarkar and sought justice.

Describing the deed of NC Dhoudhiyal, his wife Preeti, and their son Ashwin as worse than theft, the tribunal said they didn’t use “gas cutters or housebreakers to take over the house of Lotika Sarkar, but instead used ‘nice paperwork’ as a tool in this property crime”.

“They may not think of themselves as part of the criminal elements of society but their systematic actions over a period of time put to shame even skilled professional thieves who make their living from burglary, loot, larceny and robbery, etc,” the tribunal held.
The tribunal expressed hope that the government acts on the premise that police ethics and integrity are of critical importance in the professionalisation of police force.