3 ‘landlords’ lock up flat of deceased in Grant Road building collapse

Mumbai: The flat that 80-year-old Veera Wadia, a passerby who was the sole casualty in the partial collapse of the almost-century-old Rubinissa Manzil at Grant Road on July 20, lived in her entire life is now embroiled in a dispute between her family members and three people claiming to be the landlords.

According to Veera’s brother Kersi Wadia, 76, three people claiming ownership of her flat in the Hormuzd Building, located on the same road as Rubinissa Manzil, locked it up hours after she died.

“We had just returned from JJ Hospital, where her body was sent for post-mortem after she was declared dead in Bhatia Hospital,” said Kersi. “We had planned to light a diva (oil lamp) in Veera’s remembrance and perhaps later get her body home for others to pay their respects. But when we reached her door, the iron-barred safety door was drawn shut, and two new locks were in place. There was a note pasted on the door, saying the flat belongs to three owners (with their names mentioned), and trespassers would be prosecuted.” HT visited the building on Thursday and verified this.

Aghast and disturbed, the family then went to the Gamdevi police station. “They told us it is a civil matter, and we should break the locks if we have the right to it. But we did not want to take the law into our own hands,” said Firdosh Kotwal, Kersi’s son-in-law.

On July 23, the three people claiming ownership — Cushro Shroff, Mehli Golvala, and Meena Rajendra Parmar — sent Kersi a letter, stating, “Ms Veera Wadia was living alone since the last several decades and, as landlords, we have taken back possession of the captioned premises and put our lock on the main door of the premises after her demise to prevent any trespass.”

The letter added that Kersi could collect Wadia’s furniture and other belongings from the flat the following Saturday after proving that he’s her only legal heir.

In response, the family sent a legal notice to the claimants on July 25 and filed a written police complaint at the Gamdevi police station. “What they have done by locking the premises so soon after her death amounts to criminal trespassing, illegal restraint and possession, and wrongful gain,” said Sujata Kamble, the family’s lawyer. “Even if they are the legal landlords, they have to first prove it in court and give the current lawful possessor, Kersi, a notice and sufficient time to clear out the flat.”

According to the family, Golvala also lives in the 90-year-oldHormuzd Building, while Shroff owns a flat but doesn’t stay there, and Parmar is a former resident. “In the early 2000s, they had formed a condominium, akin to a housing society responsible for the structure. They claim to have proof of landlordship, but they aren’t showing it to us; and nor can we check, as all the papers are in the house we’ve been locked out of.”

Shroff, speaking on behalf of the claimants, said, “We locked the house because we are the landlords; Veera has not been paying us anything, and she has no heirs. This is a civil matter now.”

Lawyer Kamble said that a condominium only gives the members rights over the open spaces of a building’s premises, not the flats. The original landlord of the flat, however, is named NH Rathod, for which the Wadias have property tax receipts dated 2023-24, she added.

Responding to Shroff’s allegation that Veera had not paid them, Kotwal said maintenance cheques were not accepted, and no receipts were issued in return for cash, which is why maintenance was not paid. “If the police do not file an FIR in a few days, we will file a criminal case in the metropolitan magistrate court,” said the lawyer.

A police inspector from the Gamdevi police station said, “An enquiry will be conducted into the complaint, where both sides will be asked to furnish their statements and proofs. If there is a criminal aspect, we will file an FIR.”

After their mother gained tenancy of the house in 1934, Veera and Kersi were born and raised in the fourth-floor flat overlooking the Grant Road station. Following their mother’s death in 1991, they gained joint possession of the flat. Kersi divides his time between the flat and his wife’s home at Sleater House 1, right opposite Hormuzd Building.

“Veera was extremely enterprising and loved going out,” said Parvin, Kersi’s wife. “Often, on Sundays, she would take a train ride to Borivali and back, beckoning me to come along. That very Saturday morning, she had called us, warning not to step out due to the heavy rains. We replied that it was she who was likely to do so!”

Kersi recalled that Veera’s morning walk was a part of her daily routine. “She stepped out around 10.30 am every day without fail on the excuse of buying milk, bread or chapatis. She had reached her destination, the Alice bakery under the Rubinissa Manzil, when the slabs crushed her.”

Having never married, Veera worked till her retirement as a senior stenographer at the Syndicate Bank. She loved dogs and was a council member of the Indian National Kennel Club. A religious Parsi, she was a trustee at the Idavala Agiary in Dhobi Talao. The Wadia siblings are also antique car enthusiasts, owning an out-of-order black Italian Fiat bought by their mother in 1954, along with an Ambassador.

Veera’s funeral was held on Sunday, July 21, at Doongerwadi, the Parsis’ tower of silence.