Late actress Sadhana was bogged down by legal hassles
Veteran actress and Bollywood’s style icon of the 1960’s Sadhana Shivdasani breathed her last at a Mumbai hospital after a brief illness on Sunday morning. Apart from her illness, the 74-year-old actress was also bogged down by legal disputes involving her.
The actress was required to frequently attend court since the last few years due to the legal proceedings. A week before her death, Sadahana reportedly mentioned to her lawyer Ameet Mehta that she was unhappy at having to attend court at this age.
The actress was bothered by two litigations. The first one is a dispute revolving around the Khar Banglow where she was residing as a tenant for the past over 50 years. The landlord of the building had filed a case against her to vacate it.
Another matter involved a criminal case filed by Sadahana in 2010 a builder, Yusuf Lakdawala who occupied the second floor of the same building. The actress alleged that Yusuf had threatened to kill her unless she vacated her ground-floor apartment. Following the complaint, Yusuf was arrested, but released on bail.
Yusuf, however, refuted the allegations and also expressed sorrow and regret at the actress’ death. “I remember Sadhanaji as a very good woman. I never fought with her, and never threatened her. She was a nice woman and I remember visiting her house for some very good food,” a popular tabloid quoted Yusuf as saying.
A third trouble involved a defamation case against her filed by Yusuf soon after his release claiming that he was falsely implicated in the case.
Advocate Ameet Mehta said that there was a hearing in the defamation case last week, but the actress could not attend it due to her poor health. “She told me that all these legal matters were stressing her out along with her ill health and advanced age,” her lawyer told a national daily.
The bunglow, ‘Sangeeta’ where Sadhana resided in the ground-floor, was inherited by singer Asha Bhosle from her first husband Ganpatrao Bhosle. She later sold it to Kakkad Realty which has also put up their signboard on the disputed property.
