Dehradun, Apr 19 (PTI) A controversy arose over the ownership of the Mussoorie house in which 90-year-old famous Indian writer of Scottish origin Bill Aitken lived for several years till he died on Wednesday.

After a dispute arose between the caretaker of the house and a claimant a couple of days after Aitken’s death, police on Saturday said the property in the Bala Hisar area of Mussoorie was now in the possession of its real owner.

When contacted, Mussoorie Police Station SHO Santosh Kunwar clarified that the house in which the travel writer lived was not his own and its owner had given it to him to live in.

The house belonged to the erstwhile queen of the Jind estate Prithvi Bir Kaur, who had given a portion of it to Aitken to live in for life, he said.

In 2010, the Queen passed away but Aitken continued to live there. Now, after the author’s death, that part of the house has come to the Queen’s nephew Pradeep Singh, he said.

The queen had also built a house next to the one where Aitken lived for her servant Arvind Singh Chauhan where he still lives with his family, Kunwar said.

On Chauhan’s allegations that Pradeep Singh had forcibly occupied that part of the house after Aitken’s death and had put a lock on it, the police officer said he went to the spot and examined all the documents which clearly showed that Pradeep Singh was the real owner of the house.

“After the queen’s death, her property had been transferred to Pradeep Singh who is now its owner,” the police officer said.

Pradeep Singh, 65, is a retired teacher and lives in Patiala, Punjab.

He said he has been visiting the house often since childhood. PTI ALM ALM KSS KSS