Probe ordered as man digs grave for mother still alive

Malappuram: A 68-year-old woman from Thirunnavaya has moved the state women's commission against her son who built a grave for her following a property dispute. The commission, which held a sitting in Malappuram on Tuesday, has ordered a probe and sought reports from police and Thirunnavaya grama panchayat on the complaint.

The widowed woman -- Mannuparambil Pathumma of Kodakkallu, Thirunnavaya - has two sons and four daughters. She is staying with her younger son Kunhu, and her elder son, Siddhiq, had prepared the six-foot grave in the adjacent plot two months ago. He had also arranged for stones to be put on the grave and put up a banner announcing that the grave was meant for his mother.

Siddhiq, an engineer with a public sector company in Ernakulam, told TOI that he had prepared the grave in protest against his mother and brother who had been unjust in the division of property. "It was not meant to defame her; I had done it as an act of protest, he said.

A neighbour and relative said the dispute over property among the brothers was quite old and Siddiq was unhappy over his mother's recent decision to give around ten cents to Kunhu who works abroad.