A couple in the Indian state of Uttarakhand has taken their son to court, asking him to either pay back the $650,000 they claim to have invested in him or give them a grandchild within a year.

Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad filed a highly unusual lawsuit against their own son on the grounds of “mental harassment”. They claim to have invested substantial sums of money into his education and professional training over the years, helped him financially when he couldn’t find a job, and arranged and paid for his wedding in 2016. In return, they were expecting a “grandchild to play with” during their retirement years, only their son didn’t deliver as expected, so now the couple is taking legal action against him.

“My son has been married for six years but they are still not planning a baby,” Mr Prasad told The National. “At least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable.”

62-year-old pensioner Sanjeev Prasad claims to have exhausted his family’s life savings on his son throughout the years, including on a $65,000 pilot training course in the United States, on his lavish 2016 wedding and subsequent honeymoon in Thailand, and on an $80,000 car, among other things. All they asked in return from their 35-year-old son, Sagar, and his wife was a grandchild, which they failed to deliver.

“We killed our dreams to raise him,” the couple reportedly wrote in their petition. “We even took a loan of 2 million rupees ($25,800) for his education. But despite all our efforts, my son and his wife have caused mental torture by not giving us a grandchild. Society also questions us, causing further pain.”

According to the couple’s lawyer, Arvind Kumar Srivastava, the parents are now looking for a repayment of their claimed expenditure on their son, 25 million rupees, plus an extra 25 million rupees as damages. Or, Sagar and his wife, Shubhangi, could just get pregnant within a year and the lawsuit would be dropped.

“They have demanded the money because of mental cruelty,” the Prasad’s lawyer said. “It is a dream of every parent to become a grandparent. They had been waiting for years to become grandparents. They had been trying to convince the son and his wife but they paid no heed to their demands. They are heartbroken that they will die without seeing their grandchild.”

Oddity Central