Mumbai: 8 trucks of garbage removed from Mulund home; neighbours reveal shocking details about family

Days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hauled away eight truck-full of garbage from a house in a suburban residential building in Mumbai, the locals in the area have started identifying it as a 'kachra society'.

On May 16, acting on a complaint filed by an irked resident of the building, the local police and civic officials broke open into apartment no.3 of the Guide Society in Javer Road of central suburban Mulund and were shocked at the sight of what followed.

Garbage, everyday trash, roadside waste and other spoils, rotting after being stored for eight years, was unearthed by the officials from the ground floor apartment owned by the Savla family. 

The family — siblings Chunilal (67), Haribhai (65) and two sisters — had been living besides hills of garbage, stored close to a decade, in their 550 square feet one bedroom-hall-kitchen flat.

The horror did not end here, as the team also found an 80-year-old visually-impaired woman —  Maniben, mother of the Savla siblings — living in her own urine and fecal matter, amidst the heaps of garbage, for close to 10 years.

'Addams Family' of Mumbai

One might think that the Savlas are a mentally-challenged family for piling garbage in their own house, but a deeper look into their lives reveals even more shocking aspects.

The Savlas, originally from a small village in Kutch district of Gujarat, bought this apartment in 2002-03 and were known to be anti-social in all aspects of their lives. Neither did they engage in any friendly banter or communication with their neighbours, nor did they ever celebrated any festival. 

"This proves as to why the house was untouched and piled with trash since so many years. They were weird and scary," said their immediate neighbour and architect Nivideta Manwadkar.

According to Manwadkar and the 10 other families of the society, the Savlas would have their food on the staircase and would sleep near the building entrance. While the sisters made bed near the wing entrance, the two brothers took to the opposite footpath.

If this wasn't hair-raising enough, locals allege that the siblings never bathed. "How could they? With their mother sleeping in a garbage-filled bathroom, there was nowhere for them to have a bath. They used the public urinals and toilets, but nothing beyond," claimed chairman of the society, Chirag Gandhi.

There was no information on the siblings being married. Locals claimed that previously the Savla siblings were a family of seven. "A brother and a sister passed away few years back, their father died in 2000," Gandhi said.

With no relations nor social connectivity, it seems the family had forged relations with insects and dead vermin. When the waste management crew of the BMC, comprising of 30 men and women, stormed inside the house by breaking a bedroom window, they found several maggot-ridden carcasses of rats, pigeons and a huge population of live creepy crawlers.

As per the medical officials from the civic-run hospital where Maniben is currently recuperating, there are several bite marks on her body, apart from skin infections, bedsores and wounds infested by maggots as well.

"The woman was living in her own urine and faecal matter for so many years. Apart from the injuries and infections, she is severely malnourished and dehydrated. She is undergoing treatments and her health is now stable," a doctor from the hospital told iamin. 

The Savlas are rich

One might think that the family might be suffering from lack of money, but that was not the case.  The Savla brothers are professional dealer-brokers at the Vashi-based APMC market. "They paid society maintenance, electricity bill on time, which means money was never an issue," said Gandhi.

To add to this, residents claimed that the brothers jointly own a four-storey commercial building in Navi Mumbai and a huge godown in the same area. "They also own a flat, a few blocks away from this house, where they never go and is always locked," Gandhi added.

Locals claimed that the reported second flat of the Savlas, in Dedhia Colony, is filled with worn out shoes, sandals and footwear. They alleged that the residential society burnt sacks of footwear a few months ago because of the terrible odour.

When asked whether the family ever had any visitors, relatives or friends dropping by, the locals denied having any such information or catching sight of any such social interaction at any of the residential properties. 

69-year-old neighbour Shashikant Shah, who made a new door to get into his flat because of the stench, said the family was 'spooky'. "Who stays like this? Either a mentally-challenged individuals or the ones who do not have any morals nor hygiene ethics," Shah said.

Residential society had moved BMC to take action

Constructed in 1970 by former employees of State Bank of India, the ground plus two storey society houses 12 families. The rotting stench emanating from the house of the Savlas had been on the agenda of the society's meetings ever since the family moved in.

"People are asking us, how could we allow this and wasn't the smell affecting us? We gave the Savlas over a dozen notices and warnings, but no use," said society treasurer Praful Mogre. He, along with other members, also wrote to the local ward office requesting action. However, apart from embossing a received stamp on the letters, the civic body reportedly never acted.

BMC contemplates slapping notice

Speaking to iamin, a senior BMC official said that the eerie discovery had shaken the civic body, which is planning to hand a notice to the family. 

"Severe health and hygiene violations, hazards are proven in this case. We are working to give them a notice as well and will also have a word with the society members," he added. 

'Kachra society'

As news broke of the shocking garbage discovery in the building, scribes and shutterbugs from all over the city reached the location. Journalists were directed to the building, with locals calling it a 'kachra society'.

"Everyone in and around Mulund has started calling our building by this name and it is very shameful. We, the eleven families are being castigated and ridiculed by all, because of the Savlas," claimed Mogre.