Tenant refuses to vacate shop; grandchildren place grandmother’s body outside premises

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Amid a long-standing dispute over a tenant’s refusal to vacate a rented shop, the elderly landowner passed away, following which her grandchildren and family placed her body outside a medical store to pressure the tenant to vacate the premises. The incident led to tension in the area for over an hour. Subsequently, City Chowk police registered a case against ten family members on Thursday for desecration and disrespect of a dead body.

The accused include Kiran Borse, Kapil Borse, Shyam Borse, Krishna Borse, Swapnil Deepak Borse, Karan Borse, Nitin Lingayat, Lakhan Lingayat, Lakhan Borse, and Sunny Ganesh Dalvi. According to City Chowk police, Shakuntala Bapurao Borse owned a building in the Mill Corner area, where she had rented out a shop to a person for running a medical store. Despite repeated requests, the tenant allegedly refused to vacate the shop, leading to frequent disputes between them. During this period, Shakuntala Borse passed away on December 25.

Following her death, the family brought the ambulance carrying her body and parked it directly in front of Bharat Medical, expressing their anger. They alleged that the ongoing dispute with the tenant had caused severe stress, which led to Shakuntala’s death. The incident drew a large crowd, and several political office-bearers also reached the spot. City Chowk police inspector Nirmala Pardeshi, assistant police inspector Manoj Shinde, and police constable Devidas Wadekar rushed to the scene. Despite repeated appeals by the police, the family refused to move the body for nearly an hour. As a result, the police registered an offence suo motu on behalf of the government, accusing the family of forming an unlawful assembly and desecrating and disrespecting the dead body. Assistant sub-inspector Sudhakar Misal is conducting further investigation.