Police file six cases against landlords during lockdown in Bengaluru

Tapan Chakraborthy, 56, a resident of Burdwan district in West Bengal, came to the city on March 15 for an emergency medical treatment and checked into a guest house in Kadugodi. However, with the national lockdown, he and his family have been stranded in the city for over a month now and are running out of cash. Despite government directives clearly saying those stranded should not be evicted, the guest house management tried to do so. Mr. Chakraborthy approached the police, leading to the guest house owner and manager being booked under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Since the lockdown began, the city police have booked at least six cases against landlords of PG accommodations for allegedly harassing occupants for rent and trying to evict them. Most of these cases have been booked in Whitefield division, where there is a concentration of such accommodations.

In these cases, the owners and managers have been accused of stopping supply of water, electricity and even food to occupants who have not been able to pay.

However, one PG accommodation owner, on condition of anonymity, said that they were incurring expenditure on building maintenance, housekeeping, catering and other things. “If we don’t get the rent, how will we keep the facility running?” he asked.

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