The Bombay High Court will hear the habeas corpus petition filed by 71-year-old Santoshi Poojari, wife of Sukh Sagar Suresh Poojari's founder, Suresh Poojari, in January 2024. The petition seeks direction for two of her three sons to produce her husband in court.
A family feud has arisen between Santoshi and eldest son Dhanraj on one side and Suresh and the other two sons, Siddharth and Bharat, on the other side.
Santoshi alleges sons of keeping Suresh at undisclosed location
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse met with Suresh and Santoshi in their chamber on Friday. The court has scheduled the matter for a hearing in January 2024.
Santoshi's plea alleges that Siddharth and Bharat have kept Suresh at an undisclosed location, and his whereabouts are unknown. She also claims that the two sons have prevented her from interacting with him.
The couple married in March 1976. Santoshi alleges cruelty and lack of financial support from Suresh. She filed a domestic violence complaint against him and Bharat in October 2019. The Girgaon magistrate directed Suresh to pay her a monthly maintenance of Rs 1 lakh, and Bharat was restrained from dispossessing her from the fourth-floor residence. They share a household on the fourth and fifth floors of a building housing the restaurant on the ground floor near Girgaon Chowpatty.
Husband and sons took loans worth crores
Santoshi alleges that her two sons and husband took loans worth crores, showing her as a guarantor and forging her signatures on the documents. She filed a complaint in Bengaluru.
Her plea states that Suresh expressed to Dhanraj a desire to amicably settle the dispute, but the other two sons shifted him away from their house.
The court had earlier appointed a former judge as a mediator. However, the two sons conveyed through an advocate that Suresh has refused to meet her. Santoshi contends that Suresh has undergone heart-related surgeries and has the onset of Parkinson's disease.
