The first Indian woman to earn her doctorate from the Cambridge University, Lotika Sarkar, on Thursday told the New Delhi Tribunal that she wanted to stay in her L-1/10 Hauz Khas Enclave house that had been restored to her through its October 29 order.
Appearing before the Tribunal, constituted under the Maintenance and Welfare of the Parents and Senior Citizen’s Act 2007 and comprising presiding officer A. V. Prem Nath and members N. N. Dewan and C. P. Gupta, Ms. Sarkar also spoke about her financial transactions. She said she may have signed some cheques in good faith but lamented that she had been cheated.
Ms. Sarkar, who recently returned to Delhi from Mumbai, said the Dhoundials – senior IPS officer N.C. Dhoundial, his wife Priti Dhoundial and their son Ashwin Dhoundial – had been ungrateful to her.
In a statement, Ms. Sarkar thanked the Tribunal members “for the effort and earnestness’’ with which they had worked to help her get back her house and belongings.
“It seems a long time since January 2009, when I had to leave my house,’’ she said, adding: “I was forced to stay away from the house when I realised the criminal conduct of Nirmal Dhoundial and his family in misappropriating my property, and I was angry and felt a deep sense of betrayals that was brought on by the knowledge that people who had partaken of my hospitality had cheated me.’’
She further said: “I cannot express my relief at knowing that my house is mine once more. This gives me the freedom to plan how I want to live the rest of my life. The sense of having been cheated … which I have been experiencing in the months past is lifting, even if slowly, and even as the changed situation is becoming clearer.’’
The 87-year-old former teacher and women’s rights worker spent nearly an hour with the Tribunal.
She said the Dhoundials had violated her trust and declared that the Hauz Khas Enclave house was hers and she wants to stay in it.
Ms. Sarkar noted that while the Dhoundials have been evicted from the house, she is yet to go back to it.
She also noted with concern that there were a number of precious paintings in it.
One of them, she said, was by Jamini Roy. Besides, she said, the furniture was all hers and she also had important documents and research papers in the house.
The daughter of an Attorney- General and widow of noted journalist Chanchal Sarkar said there were also a large number of rare books in the house.
