Mumbai: Nine years after the sudden death of her husband, a woman from Rajasthan has got back the property of the deceased in JB Nagar in Andheri from the wife of her deceased’s elder brother. The sister-in-law had allegedly grabbed the property posing as a widow of the deceased.
According to the suit filed by Beena Maheshwari and her son Vinod Maheshwari, her husband – Ramavatar, was the owner of a property located in Rajasthan co-operative housing society in JB Nagar. On January 18, 2000, Ramavatar suffered a cardiac arrest at Andheri station. He was taken to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
While Ramavatar’s wife and son were in Rajasthan, Rani Maheshwari, wife of Ramavatar’s elder brother claimed his body, posing as his widow and also performed his last rites. Meanwhile, Beena and her son came to Mumbai only to realise that Ramavatar’s last rites were performed by Rani as his widow.
Ramavtar’s family had always stayed in Rajasthan while Rani had stayed in Mumbai with her husband and Ramavatar.
Beena also claimed that Rani took ₹8 lakh which was kept in the house and later only on the pretext of settling the dues gave them ₹1 lakh and made them sign several documents. She added that after the death of Ramavatar, Rani had approached Rajasthan cooperative housing society for the transfer of the share certificate and the membership in her name, claiming to be the legal heir of the deceased.
However, Ramavatar had mentioned Beena’s name as the nominee in the share certificate hence the society refused to transfer the share and asked Rani to obtain a succession certificate.
While Beena made efforts to claim the property back, she alleged that Rani inducted one tenant in the flat by accepting a heavy deposit of ₹3 lakh from him and since then has been receiving compensation of ₹20,000 per month.
To prove their claim, Beena obtained a Succession Certificate issued by the District Court at Jhun Jhunu in Rajasthan in which Beena, Vinod and the minor daughters of Beena were shown to be the legal heirs of deceased Ramavatar.
During the course of the hearing, Rani failed to appear but the tenant responded to the suit claiming that the suit property was given on rent to him by Rani.
The city civil court held that Beena was the wife of the deceased Ramavatar Maheshwari and after his death, she became the widow of the deceased. In these circumstances, the status of defendant no.1 (Rani) cannot be held either to be the wife or widow during the lifetime of plaintiff no.1 (Beena).
