An elderly woman has approached the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) se e king help to claim ownership of her father’s property in Japan.
The commission has now written to Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Delhi government’s Principal Secretary S.N. Sahai in this regard.
Multiple efforts made
“Tej Kaur (83) has told us that her father, who moved to Japan in 1935, left properties and assets in the country after his sudden death in 1949. Her mother and brother made multiple efforts and had several communications with the Ministry of External Affairs regarding access to their father’s assets. However, their efforts seem to have yielded no results,” DCW chief Swati Maliwal said in the letter.
“After the death of her brother and mother in 2002, the files containing these documents came under her possession and she has persistently sought help of different authorities. In 2009, she was able to establish contact with the Indian Embassy in Tokyo, which wrote back stating they were making efforts to trace the properties of her father,” she said.
Maliwal seeks factual report
Ms. Maliwal has sought a factual report from the Foreign Secretary within 15 days and requested the Principal Secretary to meet the complainant.
The DCW had last sought help from the Ministry of External Affairs in December when Ms. Maliwal had requested Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the case of Radha Debi, who sought help to bring back her husband’s body from Japan.
Responding to the request, Sushma Swaraj had said the government would bring back the body without delay and bear the expense as well.
Gopal Ram, a 48-year-old resident of Ambedkar Nagar, had gone to Tokyo in September last year looking for a better job.
He died of a cardiac arrest on December 10.
