PATIALA: A Patiala man has been sentenced to three months in prison for keeping his father in "illegal confinement" for more than five years. On September 23, 2010, Gurbhajan Singh (then 80) was rescued from his home, five years after his son Jaspal Singh had started locking him up in his own house in Patiala's Mooran Wali Gali.The court of chief judicial magistrate Poonam Bansal on Thursday sentenced Jaspal to prison under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (MWPSC), 2007. However, Gurbhajan's neighbours, who were witness to the maltreatment meted out, have said the punished is "not enough". Unhappy with the quantum of sentence, they have decided to file an appeal in a higher court to extend it.Gurbhajan, who died a few years ago, was rescued by the district administration when a four-member team led by the then sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Gurmeet Singh , broke the locks of the house open and brought him out.Father of two sons and a daughter, Gurbhajan had been left to the mercy of time, as he remained locked up in his house for over five years. The matter came to light when neighbours approached the Patiala's Kotwali police and sought their intervention.As media highlighted the plight of the octogenarian, then Patiala deputy commissioner (DC) Deepinder Singh asked the SDM to rescue Gurbhajan and shift him to an old-age home.Gurbhajan's other son and daughter are settled abroad. Jaspal, who resided with him, had turned down requests by neighbours to let him step out of the house. "His son used to leave food outside the locked gates of the house and the only company that Gurbhajan had was from neighbours," said Rajinder Kumar , a neighbor who appeared in court to depose against Jaspal. "At times, Gurbhajan would scream and bang the doors, prompting us to step in."Rajinder said the sentence was not enough and could hardly be compared to what Gurbhajan had to go through. "We would file an appeal in a higher court to get the quantum of sentence increased," Rajinder said.Jaspal was booked on December 16, 2010, on a complaint filed by the SDM Gurmeet under Sections 278, 346, and 325 of the IPC and Section 24 of the MWPSC Act, 2002.

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