After 30 residents of Navarthana Colony on Rajamannar salai in KK Nagar met the T Nagar Deputy Commissioner Hari Kiran Prasad and narrated their harrowing experience, the official visited the apartment and listened to the version of other flatmates. 

While the police tried to hold talks with the family, the woman’s adult son behaved aggressively with the police personnel, after which the Deputy Commissioner communicated the problem with the authorities of IMH and the trio were taken to the institute in an ambulance. 

A complainant, Prasath, told DT Next that they had to put up with the menace for the last two years. “Initially, only the mother was mentally disturbed, but over a period her son too started behaving wildly and staring at women and grabbing their hands. Fellow flatmates, women in particular, were scared. Her daughter verbally abused us whenever we complained about her brother’s behaviour,” he said. 

Prasath says the family was already sent to IMH once in 2019, but they returned within three months. “We want a permanent solution to this as it means the safety of women living in the apartment,” he said. 

Deputy Commissioner Hari Kiran Prasad said police sensitively approached the problem and tried to redress the grievance of complainants, while taking a humane approach towards the mentally disturbed family.