Days after she was rescued and taken to a hospital for medical care, the elderly woman from Kerala who was locked up by her son for weeks and tortured, succumbed while being treated at a private hospital in the city on Saturday evening.
75-year-old Lalitha, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram district’s Balaramapuram was locked up insider her house by her younger son, Vijayakumar, over a property dispute. On Thursday, September 19, Lalitha’s daughter L Jaya and neighbours informed the police that they were not being allowed to meet Lalitha who was locked in the house.
When the police reached the house, they found that the house and compound gates were locked and that they had forced the door open. They found Lalitha in an extremely pitiable condition, with maggots in her wounds and no proper clothing.
Her condition was so severe that they shifted her to a hospital immediately where she was getting treatment. Upon further investigation it came to be known that she had been suffering from liver cirrhosis and her son had denied her proper medical treatment over a period of six months.
“My grandmother has Rs 15 lakh in her account, which was transferred to her after my grandfather’s death. Her two daughters and two sons have equal right over it, but Vijayakumar wanted to take all the money. There is a case going on in court over this. It was after this clash that he did not allow any of the relatives to visit my grandmother,” Lalitha’s grandson, Satheesh, stated to TNM at the time.
After her death, Satheesh told TNM that the family will file a case against Vijayakumar.
Not only had her son stopped her medical treatment, but he used to torture her as well and would force her to walk. Lalitha’s grandson had also stated that Vijayakumar would share videos in which he could be seen yelling at her for something as ridiculous as not being able to bathe and get dressed on her own.
He was arrested by Balaramapuram police and later let out on bail.