Woman in ‘house arrest’ rescued

An alleged house arrest of a woman following a property dispute between her husband and his two brothers led to the intervention by State Mahila Commission Chairperson Nannapaneni Rajakumari to ensure her ‘safe release’ on Saturday.

Kolli Bharathi Devi, a housewife from Siddharth Nagar in city, alleged that in a property tussle between her husband Kolli Butchi Kotaiah and his two brothers K. Pandu Ranga Rao and K. Gopal Rao, she was attacked, beaten up, denied food and water, and locked up in a room of her house by her in-laws for the last five days.

“I and my husband were attacked on May 9 by my brothers-in-law, their wives, and a few other persons. My husband was driven out of house and I was pushed inside a room and locked without food and water for five days,” Ms. Bharathi Devi alleged.

She said her in-laws had accused her husband of forging their father’s signature on property documents and wanted them to surrender the same to them. Besides a poultry medical shop at Benz Circle, a few other properties in the city are at the centre of the controversy surrounding the Kolli brothers. On receipt of information, Ms. Rajakumari spoke to the Home Minister seeking police protection to enter the house to ensure her ‘safe release’. Responding to the latter’s allegation that her in-laws had the tacit support of the police department, Ms. Rajakumari expressed displeasure over police failure to arrest the ‘perpetrators’ even after her intervention. “I am not concerned with the property dispute. But illegal detention of a woman for five days without food and water calls for the attention of Mahila Commission. I am here to protect her,” she said.

Mr. Kotaiah’s brothers, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty and alleged that their brother had forged their father’s signature to deprive them of the property.

Machavaram CI K. Umamaheswara Rao said both parties had filed cases against each other. “FSL report has established that Butchi Kotaiah has forged his father’s signature on property papers. If situation goes out of hand, we will arrest members of both sides,” he said.