In an incident that could give saas-bahu soaps a run for their money, the 105-year-old patriarch of a Rajkot family is on a hunger strike accusing his granddaughter-in-law of harassment. Some 60 members of his family are also with him.

The family’s estranged daughter-in-law, they claim, has been harassing them to no end and there was no other way to stop it. From 105-year-old Arjan Thummar to five-year-old Abhay, these 60-odd members of the Thummar family have been staging their dharna in the scorching heat outside their home in Mahudi gav for two days now. They claim that Rekha (28), the daughter-in-law, has been a source of constant harassment. Rekha, on her part, claims it is her husband’s family that has been mentally and physically harassing her.

Estranged for over a decade now, Arjan’s son, Shantilal, says his wife has been harassing his extended family, including his father, his five brothers and their children.

Rekha had married Shantilal in 1996; and after the marriage collapsed, she filed as many as five police complaints under different sections against various members of her husband’s family, alleging mental and physical torture.

These cases were registered with police stations in different places like Junagadh, Dhoraji, Jamkandorna, Jetpur and Jamnagar, between 1999 and 2004. The Thummars said they have been harassed by the police and lawyers all these years as Rekha has a “good rapport” with the police.

The Thummars have submitted a memorandum to the Rajkot commissioner of police. While the Malavyanagar police station has begun investigating the complaint, the Thummars maintain that they want immediate action against the policemen and lawyers, who, they claim are supporting Rekha on “personal grounds”. “The police keep trooping into our home every now and then, harassing and even threatening the family,’’ they claimed. Arjan, who is on an indefinite fast, said, “I won’t eat until justice is done to us.”

... contd.