Faith Nyasuguta
An Indian couple has sued their son and his wife for taking too long to give them a grandchild, adding that they either get a baby in the next 12 months or pay $650,000.
Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad, 61 and 57, say they used up their savings raising their son, paying for his pilot’s training and also a lavish wedding.
They are demanding compensation worth nearly $650,000 if no grandchild is born within a year.
Their son and his wife do not appear to have commented.
The highly unusual lawsuit was filed on grounds of “mental harassment”.
According to Mr. Prasad,he spent all his savings on his son, sending him to the US in 2006 for pilot training at a cost of $65,000.
He returned to India in 2007, but lost his job and his family had to support him financially for over two years, according to reports by Times of India.
Shrey Sagar, 35, did eventually get a job as a pilot. His parents say they arranged his marriage to Shubhangi Sinha, now 31, in 2016, in the hope that they would have a “grandchild to play with” during their retirement.
The parents say they paid for a wedding reception in a five-star hotel, a luxury car worth $80,000 and a honeymoon overseas.
“My son has been married for six years but they are still not planning a baby,” Mr Prasad said. “At least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable.”
The couple’s lawyer, AK Srivastava, told The National that the couple had demanded the money “because of mental cruelty”.
“It is a dream of every parent to become a grandparent. They had been waiting for years to become grandparents.”
The couple’s petition, filed in Haridwar, is expected to be heard by a court on 17 May.
