Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Oct 24: A 65-year-old person from here has reportedly been driven out of his own home by his wife and two male children. The person who was ousted by his own people happens to be Mark D'Costa, residing near HMT at Koni here. He is a Roman Catholic.

Mark had married 24 years back, and had led a happy family life till two and half years back. His wife and children, it is said, got converted without informing him. After coming to know about the religious conversion, he raised objection, but had to face severe backlash at the hands of his wife and children. It is being claimed that his wife and children with the support of a police head constable, registered attempt to murder and dowry harassment case against him after which he had to spend ten days inside jail.

After he secured bail in the case, his family drove him out of his house. It is learnt that the police too have warned him against going back home. As a result Mark is literally living off the streets. With no idea about his future, he has now approached the Santwana Kendra meant for women.

Mark used to work as mechanic at Arvind Motors here before retiring. He has wife and two children. His wife and children got converted into New Life under the influence of someone three years back. Mark came to know about it six months later after he observed that his wife and children, who were regular visitors to the church, stopped these visits. They also stopped Mark against offering prayers and destroyed the crib he had prepared for the Christmas in 2016. Although Mark filed complaint in the police station here, he rues, no action was taken.

On October 6, he was preparing to offer prayers at home when his wife and children stopped him, and also urged him to convert into New Life. He was warned to leave home if this proposal was not acceptable to him. After strong words were exchanged between him and his son, his son approached him with a sickle to hit him, he said. Mark says that when he snatched away the sickle from his son's hand, his son took a photo of him holding the sickle, filed murder attempt and dowry harassment case against him with the support of a Christian policemen, and sent him to jail.

Mark then approached president of Mahila Santwana Kendra, Radhadas Kumbhashi. He narrated his tale of woes to the journalists, seeking justice for being driven out by his own wife and children. Radhadas, responding to his story, wanted to know from the police why no investigation was conducted into the complaint filed by Mark in 2016 and how they registered murdered attempt case in spite of the fact that no one had suffered external or internal injuries. She opined that by the way the dowry harassment case was registered against a person who lived harmoniously with his wife for 24 years, on the fact of it it appears to be a conspiracy hatched by the police in connivance with the woman and her children. She assured that she will carry on with her fight for providing justice to Mark.