Half-paralysed widow with iron will

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 15

A prime example of facing hardships of life head-on was witnessed at the District Courts today. A 62-year-old half-paralysed widow finally got her son’s bike home, but in a non-working condition. While Amrik Kaur’s husband died long ago, her elder son Varjit Singh, then 27, too, died in a road accident in April last year. Her younger son, Gurmandeep Singh (25), is currently in a drug rehabilitation centre in Macchiwara, Punjab.

On January 25, Kaur, a Sector 40 resident, received a call from the Sector 39 police station that her deceased son’s stolen bike had been recovered. The bike was used by her younger son, who filed a complaint regarding the theft in September 2017.

An illiterate woman, Kaur went to the police station and was asked to get the superdari from the court if she wanted the bike. On Wednesday morning, she reached the court and struggled to understand the system. In the afternoon, after no lawyer agreed to help her for the meagre Rs 500 that she could manage to pay them, she went and sat inside the courtroom concerned.

There, the Judge noticed and enquired about her. After knowing her condition, she was offered legal help. Advocate Aarti then started the paper work, but it could not be completed. Today again, Kaur reached the court in the morning and had to sit on a chair the whole day. Aarti had asked her not to come to the court saying that she would do the needful. Finally, around 5 pm, she got the superdari and went to the Sector 39 police station.

Once there, she was told that the battery of the motorcycle was missing and it would need some repairs to be in a working condition. Kaur took the bike home on a rickshaw and plans to keep it for her son, who, she expects, will return soon from the drug rehabilitation centre.