Assam Police broker weekly care pact after daughters abandon 70-Year-Old mom on highway

Guwahati: Assam Police intervened to help a 70-year-old woman found wandering on a national highway in Guwahati after she was abandoned by her three daughters, and secured a written agreement requiring the daughters to care for her on a weekly rotation basis.

The woman, Kaushalya Das of Srihati in Sualkuchi in Kamrup district, was rescued by personnel of Garchuk police station while she was on the highway. Garchuk police then alerted Sualkuchi police station, under whose jurisdiction her village falls, and she was handed over to them.

Sualkuchi police station officer in-charge Biki Barman told TOI that the station acted after receiving the call from Garchuk. “Accordingly, the woman was handed over to us. We summoned all the three daughters of the woman and made them understand everything and instructed them to take care of their mother. We handed over the woman to them after the trio signed a written agreement to take care of their mother,” Barman said.

Police said the daughters — Kabita, Manasi and Manju — were made to sign the agreement after none of them came forward to take sole responsibility for their mother.

According to police, after her husband’s death several years ago, Das raised her daughters, who were married in the last couple of years. Police said the daughters had been caring for her until they shifted her to an old age home in Guwahati, but allegedly stopped paying monthly fees for the past couple of months.

Police said the daughters then took Das out of the old age home and abandoned her on the national highway at Garchuk instead of taking her home.

An officer from Garchuk police station said, “During talks, we got to know that she was left on the road by her daughters saying they would return. However, they did not return till police spotted her. Immediately, the Sualkuchi police station was contacted and accordingly, the woman was handed over to them.”