Read all about it here.

Gopi

Sir,

I am really shocked by one of the news items I read in the TOIN of today ,the 10th June ’09 on Page 13-‘Dad sues son for Maintenance.’
This is a very damaging report which can ruin the career of Mr. Pesi Kabraji/ Satarawalla . I am pained that a news agency of your reputation should have allowed this report in your paper. The report is totally false and baseless and the cousins of the family have reacted very badly and brought it to my kind notice.
To enlighten you on Aspi’s activities and unsteady behaviour I give you the following details :-.

I am a well known activist and social worker from Bandra who had been involved since the 80s in trying to rehabilitate and help Aspi Satarawalla. He was living in a tin shed in Kantwadi village and was continuously being harassed by the boys in the village – they were his friends earlier who took him to bad ways and ruined him and his family. There was danger to his life. So I approached the Police.

In fact the late Mr. Sridhar Joshi who was then the Chief Inspector of Bandra Police Station was a friend of the family earlier and so he took pity on Aspi and kept him in the station for months to protect and gave him a job as a door- boy in one of the Bandra hotels ,as he was under my care..

He is now 65 years old. The mother and son left for the States some years ago to avoid Aspi and the mother died of cancer recently.. The boy is doing well in the States and has come up the hard way through his own struggles. He is married to a nice Parsi girl from Chennai and now Aspi with his crooked brain and twisted ways is trying to use the Government laws ,passed recently to help Senior Citizens ,out of context. He wants the boy to be shamed and lose his job as he has a vindictive nature due to alcohol habits of earlier days. Why should the boy pay maintenance ? Did Aspi contribute anything to raise him? The mother and Mrs Roshan Frenchman raised the boy and educated him. Aspi feels by blackmailing the son he may be able to get some money because people in general do not like to wash dirty linen in public and the son may not be wanting to talk about his traumatic past.

The cousin has also come to me and given me details and I am writing to you as we wish to protect the interests of Aspi’s son Peshton, whom I neither know nor have seen. As a social activist I fight for justice and will not allow Aspi to blackmail an innocent person. Aspi is very scared of me and will not face me and he is not sane enough to realise what reaction this report is likely to cause at the other end. . We intend sending a copy of this letter to the American Embassy. This letter is also meant to safeguard your interests before the boy’s side and others from the Parsi community may sue you for defamation. The neighbourhood yet remembers the Satarawallas and some people are sure to react to your report.

With regards.

Yours faithfully,

Sarasvati Dias..

I immediately responded back with the email address. Another response followed a day later asking for Pesi’s telephone number. I provided that too, after due consultation with Pesi and his lawyer. This was last Wednesday night IST.

Till date, Yagnesh has not contacted Pesi at all.

I have also written to Bharat Desai the TOI Ahmedabad Editor and Jaideep Bose the TOI National Executive Editor. No reply from either of them.

Their email addresses are

bharat.desai@timesgroup.com and
jaideep.bose@timesgroup.com

I would encourage all of you to write to them.

Am trying to see if I can get a journalist from a rival publication to call out TOI’s bullshit. There is no other way they are going to respond otherwise, it seems.

When people write, they should do so in stern but polite and measured terms. The use of foul adjectives to describe the father reflects adversely on the quality of the witness.

If the article merely repeated the court’s decision (I haven’t been able to view it), then all we need to say is that the court got it wrong.

However, there is a general and significant point about the reporting of this news item in ethnic terms, i.e. the headlline refers to “NRI Parsi…..” etc. That should be challenged: it is an unwarranted reference which would not have been made had the person been a Hindu.

That is something that has escaped the notice and ire of the Parsi commentators above. That is what needs addressing, in any letter to the journalist and his editor. It is shameful for a respectable newspaper to sensationalise a story in that communal manner – apart from the fact that the court got its judgement wrong.

Soonu

Dear Jaideep Bose

Journalism with a communal slant

You published an article by Yagnesh Mehta, regarding a Mr Pesi Satarawala, under the Title, “NRI Parsi asked to Pay for Dad’s upkeep”.

Whilst reporting the outcome of a judicial case, your editor chose, via the Headline, to give the story an ethnic spin. Why? Would a similar case involving a Hindu family be entitled, “NRI Hindu asked to ….etc.”? I doubt it. The communal slant on what is, essentially, a family matter, is a disgrace – both to yourself and the Times of India.

Clearly the impact, if not the intention, was to defame an entire community. Why else mention religious or ethnic origin, when this has no bearing on the case?

It also transpires that you published this story without ensuring that the journalist had checked his facts. Since the TOI was so moved to throw a spotlight on the entire Parsi community, it could have made some enquiries within that community. Had you done so, you might have refrained from targeting Mr Pesi Satarawala – though you might have then been tempted, I fear, to sensationalise the subject of Parsi fathers!

It is significant that a non-Parsi wrote this story: those who are envious of the strength of community and the positive reputation such as the Parsis enjoy, may seize on anything derogatory – even if it means being unprofessional and not fulfilling the basic requirements of their job.

I hope the TOI will refrain in future from bringing in a communal angle where none exists.

Yours regretfully

yagnesh.mehta@timesgroup.com

One wholeheartedly endorses the sense of outrage by Pesi Satarawala’s friends and acquaintances at the unsuspecting/undeserving injustice meted to him by a High Court thanks to his deviously lying father.

We are privy to another case of ordeal of a guiltless law abiding family who also suffered because a Machiavellian individual (since deceased in divine retribution), connivingly misused reporter designation of a media crony, to defame. On the basis of an ambiguous complaint and without basic verification of intentional misinformation fed by his obvious vested interest/s, a blameless citizen discovered own name reflected in a leading national daily, which contents to a jolted mind read like a best-seller in the fiction category. The entire exercise was manipulated arbitrary use of position of community office, to intimidate by publicizing twisted facts and half-truths.

The games our questionable system plays with a man’s constitutional rights and his freedom, with barely a thought for the ensuing character assassination, is difficult to comprehend. Addedly, in the midst of a competitive agenda to sensationalise reports, newspapers unwittingly abet by publishing what is circulated to the press, being unable to draw a verifying line between genuine culprits or fall-guys. Overly zealous media coverage indeed aggravates victims’ ordeal.

In our long dragging legal system someone has to be made answerable after endless astronomical litigation to fight against the stigmatization to ruin career and discredit reputation, and heaping humiliation to inflict emotional trauma and mental ordeal. Not only the miscreant law enforcers but the individuals actively involved in such defamation must be severely penalised by the Judiciary for misusing authority and/or filing false cases other than in pursuit of genuine commission of a crime.

Hope this helps and I hope these Editors understands the importance of Zoroastrain Integrity.
Khushroo

He has come to USA without any favour from anybody. While here, he has looked after his mom and kept her half of the last 10 years in USA(due to visa restrictions).

The court has given an ex-parte decision since he was in the USA.
I believe this is going to be overturned soon.

My note has not received a response and I’m not sure I got the email address right.

YOU NEVER TOOK CARE OF ANYONE IN YOUR LIFE OTHER THAN YOURSELF…!!!!!

Hi readers…

I have known Pesi and his mother since I moved to Pune in 1986.

What I am mentioning here-below… can be verified by every one who knows Pesi and knew his beloved late mother.

Pesi is a hardworking, good hearted, helpful, generous, God fearing and a VERY HONEST human.

Words cannot do justice to describe his mother’s nature and character… all I can say is… she was the type of woman… that “Saint’s” are made of…!!!!!! Despite all her difficulties and troubles in her life… she always wore a smile on her face and she has never took a wrong step ever. Also… she never refused help to anyone at anytime… whatever it may have cost her or her health..!!! She has endured such pain and unhappiness but ensured that she brought up her son Pesi with a straight and strong mind.

Aspi Satarawala… who claims to be the so-called “loving and devoted father” was never there for them ever since he abandoned them (when Pesi was 7 years old)… and despite having so much wealth at different stages of his corrupt life… he never helped them in any single way… nor did he ever even care to interact with them. He never ever helped financially towards any part of Pesi’s education. Mostly anyone who knows the family’s history will confirm that Aspi had ruined the entire family and even turned his late grandmother and his brother Minoo into destitutes. After the death of his mother and grandfather, the grandmother was a victim of his violence. He is known to have regularly beaten the grandmother and forced her to sign cheques… such that… before he could completely squander away all her wealth… she set up a Trust to provide monthly amounts to Aspi and his brother Minoo. Several well known Parsi’s like Mr. Kapadia (a lawyer and also a Trustee of the Dadar Parsee Assembly School) and one late Mr. Billimoria (Central Bank) were in the Trust as Trustees. He eventually brought his grandmother to the level of a destitute and she died of starvation… with no one to attend to her needs. After the grandmother died, Aspi with the help of his “criminal friends” sold away the bungalow and deprived his brother Minoo and his cousin (the late Mr. Adil Frenchman) of their rightful share in the grandfather’s property. Due to Aspi’s cheating and defrauding… his brother Minoo also became a destitute like the grandmother.

Sources close to Minoo say that they (Minoo and Aspi) have received some sizeable legacy from their father’s side… which may actually be assigned to Pesi… and therefore Aspi is using his criminal mind to use these laws which are meant to protect ‘good parents’… to remove the legacy from his son.

Pesi worked in our organization just so that he could use the salary to pay for the extra costs towards his computer education which incidentally was sponsored by a Parsi Trust in Pune… and he obtained a Diploma in IT by attending night classes at NIIT.

I would like to ask Mr. Aspi Satarawala to kindly let me know where Pesi did his education, his higher education… and also his MBA… which he should know… considering he claims that he paid for it all.

Pesi Satarawala has never at any of the family functions nor his son’s wedding… as he was never invited to any function considering his criminal, opportunistic and manipulative intentions… and not to forget his abusive and cruel behavior towards Pesi and his mother Villoo. Can Aspi show a single photograph of himself at any of the family functions directly connected with his son???? Can he produce any proof of any of these “so-called” payments that he claims to have made over the years…???

I also have heard that he has a criminal record for defrauding and cheating people… and he has also defrauded several family members of their wealth. He has amassed a vast amount of wealth… and consequently squandered it on all wrong activities… but never has he ever helped his immediate family… Villoo and Pesi. Again now… as is usual… he is trying to live off or make a buck off someone else. This time he’s trying his luck with his son Pesi.

He has a selfish character and his primary purpose in life is to take other people’s money or claim it without doing any work for it.

This man has filed a completely false case and has taken advantage of the fact that Pesi does not live in India… and he has given wrong evidence to the court… and rest assured time will prove that he is the liar and his son Pesi has never done any wrong.

The Times Of India is requested to kindly verify facts before printing an article that is so defamatory and damaging to someone’s career.