Video of 85-yr-old assaulting wife near Mumbai goes viral

Senior inspector M Khandare of Hill Line police station said, “We have summoned the accused to the police station. We also called other family members and warned them. We will keep an eye on the house for the next few days.”

Hill Line police in Ulhasnagar on Monday registered a suo motu case against an 85-year-old man for assaulting his wife, after a video of the incident went viral last week. The police filed the case after the accused’s wife refused to register a plaint. The man fled to his hometown in Alandi after seeing the video of the incident on news channels.

The police filed the case after the accused’s wife refused to register a plaint. (Representational image)

Senior inspector M Khandare of Hill Line police station said, “We have summoned the accused to the police station. We also called other family members and warned them. We will keep an eye on the house for the next few days.”

The man, Gajanan Bua Chikankar, is a folk singer who sings kirtans to create awareness against the ill practices in the society and inequality. The incident has come as a shock to the people in the area.

The video, recorded by the man’s eight-year-old grandson shows the accused questioning his wife, 80, on why she did not keep a bucket of water ready for his bath. He also claimed that he had kept a pipe in the bucket to fill it, but she removed the pipe. The rest of the family members are seen laughing over the argument. The man then started kicking and also hitting her using the bucket. Apart from the two grandsons, no one came in the house tried to stop Chikankar.

An officer from Hill Line police station said, “The couple resides in Dwarli village near Malanggad, which is in our jurisdiction. The video is eight days old. We sent out a team to their house but Chikankar has fled to his village in Alandi, as he had seen the video on TV. His wife refused to file a case against him. So we have registered a case against Chikankar.”