Mafatlal scion moves court against step mother

Mumbai: In a twist to the Mafatlal family dispute, 19-year-old Maruksha Mafatlal, daughter of Atulya Mafatlal, has moved a local court against her step mother, Sheetal, alleging she had stolen precious paintings and silverware belonging to the family from their Bungalow.

Earlier, Atulya and Sheetal were locked in legal dispute with their family over property. Currently, Atulya is not well and undergoing treatment abroad. According to Marukhsa, even her father has objected to Sheetal taking away family assets from their Altamount Road
residence in his absence without informing him or others in the family.

Maruksha alleged that she saw Sheetal wrapping family paintings and when she objected, the latter assured her that none of those would be removed. Later, 40 paintings by M F Hussain and other renowned artists were taken away by Sheetal, she said in a complaint filed in Girgaum court on July 12.

Marushka filed another complaint in the same court on July 31 when she found that silver articles were also missing from a room in the bungalow. The court is yet to hear the complaints.

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The Mafatlal scion moved the court seeking direction to the police to probe the alleged theft after police did not act on her complaint.

Maruksha, daughter of Atulya from his first wife Payal, has accused Sheetal of "causing immense loss to the family by removing priceless family heirlooms from the house without permission from other family members". She has cited 12 witnesses to the alleged theft including her 86-year-old grandmother Madhuri. Sheetal was not available for comment.

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Arrested in 2009

Sheetal Mafatlal last made news when the Mumbai customs arrested her for carrying undisclosed jewellery worth close to Rs 46 lakh.

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In addition, she had Louis Vuitton handbags and clothes worth Rs 7 lakh that she had picked up at the Harrods luxury store in London.

Officials said that investigations had covered sufficient distance and was passing through a crucial phase and Mafatlal was expected to further open up.

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Talking about the case Nunwal said, "She has been interrogated over the past few weeks. However, details on the purchase of her jewellery are not available."

Officials also said that while Mafatlal continued to remain mum on the source of purchase, she had submitted that she was working in Britain and was an NRI. She has also been found to violate some sections of the visa rules.

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Customs officials said that her NRI status would not have any impact on the case in terms of a relaxation of customs duty.

She could not prove that she would be taking the items back to the United Kingdom with her and was therefore not exempt from duty.