The most elitist and costliest address in Jabalpur, Wright Town, settled down to an unnerving silence on Sunday evening. The body of the 81-year-old senior ophthalmologist Doctor Hemlata Srivastava was lying in a vast bungalow valued in crores, with grief, and uniformed policemen and bouncers protecting it. Her last days became a slow-paced legal thriller.
This funeral procession was carried under the supervision of administration within her Wright Town house to Ranital Muktidham. And yet, an even more inflammable question had flashed into the mind before the fires were set, who should succeed to the empire she leaves?
Doctor Hemlata is 81 years old and she celebrated her birthday on January 12. There is a video that has gone viral where she is seen smiling, as she cuts cake with Doctor Sumit Jain and his wife Prachi Jain. Her health, apparently, a month later, allowed two days later, took a nosedive. At the beginning of January, she fell seriously ill. And joy, and fiesta and documents were withdrawn. The prime piece of land, which is 11,000 square feet in prime land in Wright Town, is estimated to be close to ra 60 crore.
Doctor Sumit Jain asserts that Doctor Hemlata had donated the land to constitute a memorial hospital to the memory of her deceased father-in-law and son, at will. “She was fully conscious. She had been to us as a mother,” he insists.
And it is not the end of the story. It fractures. It has been accused of coercion and harassment, as the senior doctor has been pressured into signing registry and gift deeds when her physical and mental health is too weak. When the situation got out of control in January, district officials came in and took her to the Medical College under the demands of the Collector.
Most importantly, Dr Hemlata was later reported to have said that the gifted action had been registered through giving false information.
The Gayatri Mandir Trust, in their turn, has put forward the argument that Dr Hemlata had said that she needed to give her whole property to the trust. She had a younger sister, Kanak Lata Mishra who was quoted in defense of this argument. On the opposite side is her sister Shanti Mishra who is a resident of Chhattisgarh and has now been made to take custody of the body and who forms the core of the family litigation. Multiple claimants. Multiple versions. One property.
By anticipation, Jabalpur District Collector Raghavendra Singh handled the issue. In an interview with NDTV he explained that the Wright Town property is classified as part of leasehold by the Municipal Corporation and is not legally donable. He also indicated that in an interview that followed later, Dr Hemlata claimed that she did not donate the property. The whole issue has been taken to SDM court. Statements of all the concerned parties are being taken. There will be decisions made as per the law.
As this, the case that seemed like a personal conflict now officially started.
Collectively creating more fodder to the drama are reports that when Dr Hemlata became a condition worse a group of people with religious affiliations were reportedly taking her in a car, a fact that neighbours did not appreciate, causing police to take action. There have also been questions of her hospitalisation, where she was treated and what was the medication given and why her health went out of hand within no time.
The tragedy is enhanced by the personal history of Dr Hemlata Srivastava. Her son, Dr Rachit Srivastava passed away after having a heart attack in 2022. Her husband died in December 2025. She was now in a lonely bungalow, with no immediate heirs, and her position now appeared to be above land instead of above the growing infirmities of her own body, like a ship-owner that had lived long enough to find itself out of favour, in comparison with its days.
Medical Conference November 9, 2025: She was perfectly healthy and present at a medical conference. As early as January 2026, IMA officials said that her state was that of a living corpse. Within weeks, she was gone.
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