Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Aug 30: A retired assistant sub-inspector of police (ASI), who was chained to a cot by his wife and two sons for money, was released by the policemen of Girinagar station here on Thursday August 28. The man who underwent this ordeal was Venkatesh (60), who had retired in June this year after working as assistant sub-inspector of police in K G Nagar police station here. He was backed by 35 years of service.

At the time of retirement, Venkatesh got around Rs 20 lac in the form of provident fund, encashment of pension, gratuity etc. He had deposited this money in the form of term deposit in State Bank of India in his wife, Ratna's name. It is learnt that Ratna and her two sons had tortured him and chained, and kept him in house arrest, demanding payment of the entire money in cash to them.

When Ramadase Gowda, younger brother of Venkatesh, tried to contact his elder brother recently, he found that the cell phone number was not available for contact. As he was refused entry into the house, Ramadase Gowda, at the advice of the policemen, obtained search warrant from the 24th additional chief metropolitan magistrate's court, and went to his brother's home with policemen from Girinagar station, duly armed with the court order. Ratna refused entry for the policemen inside her house, and reportedly challenged them that she would be able to get several such search warrants. After the policemen warned that they would break open the door, she allowed them inside.

It is gathered that even three months earlier to his retirement, Venkatesh had been kept under house arrest by his wife and children. As he had not been chained then, he could escape at midnight from his house and get shelter in the house of his brother at Kanakapura. Ratna approached a MP then, and got a recommendation letter from him to remit retirement benefits directly to her, duly alleging that Venkatesh was mentally unstable. But the senior police officers, who insisted that retirement money can only be paid to the retiring employee, insisted on making the payment to Venkatesh.

Venkatesh told the media men that in spite of his paltry income, he had struggled to provide engineering education to both his children. His first son, a M Tech postgraduate, and second son, who has visited several countries as part of his engineering job, tortured him at the instigation of their mother. He said that he had kept the entire money in fixed deposit to secure the future of his wife. “We get Rs 50,000 as rent from a house in Srinagar in the city, and another apartment is being built at Ittamadu. As money is required for this flat, I was being pestered to provide money. I took the stand that keeping money in fixed deposit can be helpful in the future if the children turn hostile after their marriage,” he said. He also revealed that he plans to hand over all the money to his wife and children when he is produced in the court, and then go to live with his brother for the rest of his life.

'I am under house arrest since August 9. I have never taken bath ever since. They did not provide me anything to eat, except tea to drink occasionally. When my younger brother, Ramadase Gowda, sent his wife and children to check for me, my sons applied gum tapes to my lips so that I could not shout. They also threatened me at knife point to kill me. Our family has five acre irrigated agricultural land inherited from my father, which can fetch an income of two lac rupees per year. I will lead the remaining life out of this money and the monthly pension,' he said.