The Madras High Court was on Wednesday surprised to hear that Veda Nilayam, residence of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, at Poes Garden was spread over 10 grounds (around 24,000 sq.ft.) of land with the market value of each ground (2,400 sq.ft.) being nothing less than ₹10 crore.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and Abdul Quddhose could not contain its surprise when advocate S.L. Sudarsanam, representing Jayalalithaa’s nephew J. Deepak, asserted that the Poes Garden property was spread over 10 grounds of land.
The submission was made during the hearing of a civil case filed by two AIADMK cadre for appointment of an administrator to take care of the movable as well as immovable properties left behind by the former Chief Minister.
The court had suo motu included her nephew as well as niece, J. Deepa, as respondents to the case, since the former Chief Minister had died intestate and the siblings were the only known second-class legal heirs of the deceased.
It also directed them to submit a complete list of properties owned by their aunt.
Mr. Sudarsanam said his client wanted to adopt the list of properties declared by his aunt before contesting the 2016 Assembly elections.
Discrepancies in list
When questioned about the Kodanad estate, he said it was owned by a partnership firm in which his client’s aunt, her aide V.K. Sasikala, Ilavarasi and one more person were partners.
However, finding that there were discrepancies in the list of properties declared during elections and those that found place in the Supreme Court judgement in a disproportionate assets case, the judges impleaded the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax too as a respondent to the case so that her tax returns could be analysed.
A.P. Srinivas, senior standing cousel for the I-T Department, was asked to take notice and submit details of assets and liabilities declared by Jayalalithaa during her lifetime. Mr. Deepak’s counsel informed the court that Indian Bank, Raja Annamalaipuram branch, had recently initiated loan recovery proceedings before the Debts Recovery Tribunal.
According to him, Jayalalithaa had taken a loan of over ₹1 crore from the bank as against some fixed deposits held by her. The bank had now approached the DRT to recover the loan from her legal heirs. However, the loan had not been disclosed in the affidavit filed before the Election Commission of India (ECI) before contesting the 2016 elections.
Further, since the State government was contemplating to convert the Poes Garden residence into a memorial, the judges ordered notice to the government, returnable by Monday. During the course of hearing, Ms. Deepa’s counsel said Deepak would know the details of properties better because only he was with Jayalalithaa during her last days.
This prompted the senior judge of the Bench to remark that Deepak appeared to be interested in properties while Deepa was into politics. Refuting it, the counsel said her client was not interested in politics at all and that she had floated only a forum, and not a political party due to the compulsion of her aunt’s political followers.
Laughing at such submission, the judge said: “Madam, we also read newspapers. Not only you, your husband is also interested in politics and he has also started his own outfit.”