PORVORIM: The failure to invite your mother to the marriage of your daughter (her grand daughter) can sometimes lead to dreadful consequences for the son.
In an unusual case, a 90-year-old woman from Tarwado-Colvale decided to end her life five days before the marriage of her grand-daughter, after being upset that she was not invited by her son to the marriage ceremony.
What makes the incident even more unusual is that Rukmini Halarnkar had ended her life in 2008 and it took the CID Branch six long years to establish that the non-agenarian had ended her life due to the actions of her son, who has now been charged for abetting the suicide of his mother.
According to Mapusa police, Mahabaleshwar Halarnker of Mangor-Vasco had arranged the marriage of his daughter on April 28, 2008.
However, his mother, Rukmini, who was residing at Colvale along with her other son, was upset on learning that Mahabaleshwar had not invited her to the marriage of her grand daughter.
Rukmini then took the drastic step of ending her life by jumping into a river at Tarwado-Colvale sometime prior to 9 am on April 23, 2008, in a possible bid to prevent the marriage from taking place due to a death in the family.
At the time, Mapusa police had registered the incident as an unnatural death. Unhappy with investigations by Mapusa police, Mahabaleshwar then filed a complaint with the CID Branch at Panjim after suspecting that his brother, Damodar, his wife and their three sons may have killed Rukmini and dumped her body in the river to appear that it was a case of a suicide.
The CID Branch conducted an enquiry into the death of Rukmini and after six years, submitted its report to the Bardez Deputy Collector Sabaji Shetye a few days ago. To Mahabaleshwar’s absolute shock, the report stated that Rukmini had ended her life after being harassed by Mahabaleshwar.
Acting on a CID report, Shetye then filed a complaint with the Mapusa police stating that Mahabaleshwar had been responsible for the death of his mother and had abetted her to commit suicide by jumping in the river.
Acting on Shetye’s complaint, Mapusa police has now registered an offence against Mahabaleshwar under Section 306 IPC. Mapusa PSI S S Narvekar is the investigation officer in the case.
