An Indian woman, who was living in Sydney with her husband and two teenage children, ended her life by jumping into a reservoir in Karnataka’s Belagavi alleging harassment by an Australian state government’s department of communities and justice. The woman also blamed her neighbours for driving her into taking the extreme step.
The incident took place on August 20, a day after the woman, identified as Priyadarshini Patil, returned to India alone. Instead of going to her house in Dharwad, she went to Belagavi and jumped into the Naviluthirtha reservoir in Savadatti. Before this, she mailed her valuables to her family, including the Australian passports of her children.
According to Priyadarshini’s family, she and her husband Lingaraj Patil have been fighting a prolonged legal battle for the custody of their children – 17-year-old Amartya and 13-year-old Aprajitha – but without success. The family said both the children are Australian citizens by birth and they were now seeking the intervention of the central government for justice as well as the safety of Lingaraj and the children.
Eight years ago, Amartya developed health issues but the medicine prescribed by the doctors in Australia led to complications following which Priyadarshini decided to file a complaint against the public hospital.
But, this led to a harrowing time for the family as the department of communities and justice (DCJ) accused her and Lingaraj of not taking proper care of the children and initiated action against the software engineers. As a result, the children were taken away around five years ago.
“There were lapses on part of the doctors who treated the boy. But the department said they will take custody of the children because they are Australian citizens and they continuously harassed her (Priyadarshini). In fact, she even contemplated cancelling the children’s citizenship and returning to India but she said it would take at least a year and they won’t allow her to live peacefully till then,” said Priyadarshini’s mother Shobha Desai.
In a note allegedly left by Priyadarshini, she claimed that the water supply to her house had been poisoned while also accusing the residents of Verlie Street in Sydney of being responsible for her death without elaborating on the reasons.
“Anand Goru, Ajitha Goru, Srinidhi Goru, Jabbur and family, Daniel and family, Raymond and his children, Tanya and the whole family, police officer and family… are all responsible for my death. The water supplied to my house was poisoned,” the note read.
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