Karnataka AIADMK leader moves Madras HC opposing woman's claim to be Jaya's daughter 

CHENNAI: A loyalist of sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran has sought to implead himself and oppose the claim of a Bengaluru-based woman in the Madras High Court that she is the biological daughter of late chief minister Jayalalithaa.

VA Pugazhendhi, a leader of the AIADMK's Karnataka unit, claimed in an application that the woman had about 10 years ago approached him to facilitate a meeting with Jayalalithaa, saying she was distantly related to her.

The former Tamil Nadu chief minister had refused to meet the woman and termed her a "fraud", he claimed.

Pugazhendhi sought permission to implead himself in the petition filed by the woman as party respondent.

Assailing the locus standi of the woman for moving such a plea, he alleged that it was nothing but a publicity-oriented adventurism made with a mala fide intention.

The woman moved the high court in December last claiming to be the biological daughter of Jayalalithaa and seeking a direction for a DNA test to prove her claim.

Admitting the petition to decide its maintainability, Justice S.

Vaidyanathan had issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government, Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa and nephew Deepak.

In her petition, the woman has claimed she is the daughter of Jayalalithaa and had been given in adoption to the late leader's sister and her husband.

Besides, the petitioner has sought a direction to exhume the body of Jayalalithaa and enable her and her family to cremate it on the grounds that the late leader was an Iyengar Brahmin.

Deepak, son of Jayalalithaa's brother Jayakumar, in his counter-affidavit last month had described as "utter false" the claim of the woman and accused her of moving the court with the aim of grabbing the properties of the late AIADMK supremo.

Disputing the woman's version that she was given in adoption to Amma's sister, Deepak said Jayalalithaa and her brother Jayakumar were the sole legal heirs of Sandhya, their mother.

The woman had earlier moved the Supreme Court with the same prayer but the latter refused to entertain it.

The apex court, however, had said she was at liberty to approach the high court.

Jayalalithaa died on December 5, 2016 after prolonged hospitalisation and her body was buried off the famous Marina Beach here.