Three siblings- two brothers and a sister had withdrawn themselves from society for 10 years and were living in one room in Rajkot’s Kisanpara area on Sunday. The Saathi Seva Group, a Non-Governmental Organization received a call from the neighbors who informed them that the family members of the Mehta have not stepped out in years. When the volunteers from the NGO reached Kisanpara, the father, Navin Mehta had gone out to get tiffin for all. Despite fervent knocking, nobody opened the door for a long time. The volunteers then broke open the door.
The room was reeking of human feces, newspapers scattered around, stake food with bowls of uneaten dal and rotten chappatis. The brothers had grown long locks of hair touching their knees and beards covering their chests. They looked completely malnourished and were reduced to a skeleton. They were found lying on the floor, oblivious to the presence of volunteers in the room.
Mr. Mehta is a retired government employee who lived in the same house. He earns a monthly pension of Rs 35,000 and used to provide them with food which he left outside their room.“My both sons have locked themselves up in the room after their mother died around 10 years ago. No amount of convincing has worked,” said Mehta, who alleged that some of their relatives had performed black magic on his children.
The father revealed his children’s academic record. The eldest son is 42 years old and was a practicing lawyer with BA LLB degrees, the daughter is 39 years old and has an MA in psychology, the younger one has a BA in Economics. The younger was also a promising cricketer and played in local tournaments.
Even as the NGO founder Jalpa Patel tried to calm down Megha, one of the siblings, as she continuously pleaded that she was fine but kept asking for food and that she had to take care of her brothers. A barber was called to get their head tonsured, followed by a bath and fresh clothes.
Navin Mehta will decide the future of his children in a week after discussing the situation with the relatives. The NGO will put them under their care if the father is unable to care for them.
