An Indian man is seeking damages for the “mental trauma” he endured after being intentionally abandoned on a train in Mumbai 38 years ago by his mother who wanted to pursue a career in the film industry, his lawsuit says.
In a lawsuit filed to the Bombay High Court and cited by local media, make-up artist Srikant Sabnis, 40, alleges that his biological mother willfully abandoned him when he was just two years old.
Sabnis claims that in September 1981, his mother, Aarti Mhaskar, left his hometown of Pune for Mumbai to seek a job in the film industry. According to the plaintiff, the woman left her infant son on the train once they arrived in the city. The boy was found by a railway officer and was sent to an orphanage, the lawsuit says, after which he was forced “to live like a beggar” until his grandmother obtained custody over him.
The plaintiff allegedly did not learn the identity of his mother until 2017, and met her a year later. According to the lawsuit, the woman admitted to leaving Sabnis nearly four decades ago due to “unavoidable circumstances,” but she and her current husband asked him not to reveal who he really is in front of their other children.
Having already suffered a “dreadful” life because of his abandonment at an early age, Sabnis was “totally devastated by this unacceptable condition,” the lawsuit says. He now wants Mhaskar to officially recognize him as her son and seeks 15 million rupees (US$212,000) in compensation for moral damages.
“The plaintiff has undergone a life full of agony, mental trauma, inconvenience, mystery about his own parents and his existence,” the lawsuit says.
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