Son ostracised by villagers for sending parents to old-age home

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo



Bhubaneswar, Oct. 3: It's warning for all those who consider their parents a burden, prefer to shun them or leave to them to their fate.

Residents of Kanpur village in Jagatsinghpur district have set an unprecedented example by ostracising a son who had shunned his septuagenarian parents and dumped them in a old-age home.

The plot of the story runs like this.

Balram Mohanty (75) and his wife Haramani of Kanpur village, like any other parents, had taken utmost care of their only son Bishnu and hoped that he would support them in the future and take care of them during the old age. But all their hopes dashed against despair. Bishnu treated them as a liability, allegedly stopped giving them food and made life miserable for Balram and Haramani.

Bishnu's torture was unbearable and finally, the parents were forced to taken shelter at a Jara Nivas or old-age home run by social organization Assa in Balikuda area.

The incident had angered villagers and some of them had even offered accommodation to Balaram and his wife.

Things turned worse as Bishnu started picking up quarrel with all those who showed sympathy towards his parents and also lodged false complaints against them with the police.

A land dispute with one Narendra Sahu was the last straw and villagers decided to teach Bishnu a lesson.

Initially, villagers tried to intervene and settle the land dispute between Bishnu and Narendra. But Bishnu did not agree with the proposal of villagers, as a result Narendra lodged an FIR with police. The police arrested Bishnu and his son in this connection and forwarded them to the court. After release from jail, he misbehaved with the villagers and threatened to lodge false FIR against the villagers who had sent him to jail.

Being aggrieved on the activities of Bishnu, villagers decided to ostracise him from the society. He alleged that the villagers had barred him from using drinking water from tube well and purchasing grocery from shops. Aggrieved by this, Bishnu has submitted a memorandum to district collector and district superintendent of police against villagers. Stating that the villagers have prevented him from going to his agricultural land, Bishnu has sought the intervention of the collector.