Payal Abdullah loses court battle, rendered homeless

Payal Abdullah, a once all-powerful wife of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, found herself on the streets on Monday. Her belongings, carefully pieced over the years, were strewn on the front yard of the government allotted bungalow –7, Akbar Road in the national capital.

Her dream house that she had nurtured over the years with her keen sense of style lay in a complete shambles.

On Monday when her husband Omar was interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the head of a delegation of Opposition parties to try and find a solution to the Kashmir unrest, Payal lost her battle in the High Court that rejected her plea and slapped an eviction notice on her.

Without giving a window to Payal for making any further appeal, which could delay her eviction, the estate officers along with the members from the Jammu and Kashmir Resident Commissioner’s office and a posse of Delhi Police and CRPF men gate crashed removing Payal’s belongings from the plush eight-bedroom house. Even the standing counsel of the Jammu and Kashmir government was present on the spot ensuring Payal had no window to escape the eviction.

More than ten people got engaged in throwing out her belongings as Payal and her sons remained helpless spectators. The same furniture and home décor that Payal had flaunted to a news magazine, a few years ago, was thrown all over the place. Her sofa, tables, book racks, flower vases, lamps, rugs, carpets, beds and curtains,which till Monday morning decorated her palatial house, were lying unattended in the lawn.

When the eviction team reached the spot, Payal was not in the house. As her guards refused to open the gates, the gates were brought down and name plate of Omar Abdullah removed. Her two sons were at home when these men gate crashed and started removing her belongings. Soon after Payal reached the house, she was followed by a team of lawyers who were still trying to find a way out to stop eviction. But with the day coming to an end for the court, they had no choice, but to pacify Payal.

While Payal soon gathered her composure, her two sons were visibly in a state of panic seeing a fleet of men moving in and out of their house and throwing their furniture in the lawns where they would cheerfully play till a day ago. The Abdullahs had been living in the house since 1999.

Calling it an act of vendetta against Payal, her lawyer Amit Khemka said, “The government cannot carry on eviction after sunset. An inventory of the belongings of the occupant should also have been made before carrying out the eviction. But here everything is being done in such a hurry.” The lawyer also said that his client was ready to vacate the house in a weeks time.

The type 8 house built over two acres of land,belongs to Jammu and Kashmir government. Omar and Payal were occupying the house since 1999. After Omar was out of office, the resident commissioner asked Payal to vacate the house. Payal challenged the vacation in the court. She cited security concerns of herself and her two children. But the court said, if her husband Omar Abdullah and father-in-law Farooq     Abdullah, also a former chief minister and Union minister, both Z plus protectees, can be secured while living in private accommodation, “there is no reason “why Payal and her sons cannot be secured.” The detailed verdict pronounced by Justice Indermeet Kaur was made available on Monday, though the judgment had been pronounced on August 19.

In the past, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had faced a similar fate, when her mother-in-law and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had forced her to vacate the government house, rendering her daughter-in-law homeless. In 2014, RLD chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh was forcefully evicted from his Tughlaq Road house.