TILL recently, Laxmi Nivas was just another old building in Bombay where landlord and tenant existed in a state of perennial discord. In a city with over three million tenants, the use of muscle as a strategy to evict was not unusual. But when one harassed tenant died in mysterious circumstances last month, and the landlords, closely linked to the Thackerays, were the main accused, Laxmi Nivas hit the headlines.
The nearly 60-year-old building, in a conservative, middle-class part of the city, now has police stationed below it to protect Sheila, the widow of Ramesh Kini. For tenants in the building trouble with Laxmichand Shah and his son Suman, who bought the building in 1984, is not new. For the last eight years, tenants have reportedly been harassed—and three of the building's five original tenants have moved out. One of them is said to be Jayanti Koppikar. Residents of the building say that Jayanti, the sole surviving member of her family in Bombay, was forced out of her flat and onto the pavement. Residents of the building say that a few months ago, the harassment increased, with the Thackeray name being generously dropped. They had proof of it when the Sena chief was to stay in a 10-room second floor flat, while his suburban Bandra bungalow was being renovated earlier this year. The landlord's close connections with the Sena and the cases he has filed against some of the tenants, have the building's nine tenants worried. As one of them said: "We don't know what will happen, but whatever it is, we are with Sheila Kini in her fight for justice."
