Heir You Are: As 83-yr-old Seeks Share in TN CM Jayalalithaa's Assets, A Look At Others Who Did it Too

An 83-year-old man from Mysuru has filed a case in the Madras High Court, seeking a 50% share in the late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s assets.

In his petition, Vasudevan, who hails from Vyasarapuram in Mysuru, Karnataka, claimed that the late All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief Jayalalithaa’s father Jayaram was also his father. “Jayalalithaa’s father, R Jayaram, is my father. I’m the only son of Jayaram’s first wife, J Jayamma, making me the sole heir,” states the petition.

The petition states that Jayalalithaa and her brother Jayakumar were born to Vedavalli alias Vedamma, who was the second wife of Jayaram. “That makes Jayalalithaa and Jayakumar my siblings. In 1950, when Jayamma filed a case in the Mysuru court for alimony, Vedavalli and her children were included as respondents. Later, a settlement for the matter was reached. Jayakumar passed away before Jayalalithaa. So as of now, I’m Jayalalitha’s brother and direct successor,” he mentioned.

Vasudevan has sought distribution of half of Jayalalithaa’s assets and amendment to the Madras High Court’s 2020 ruling, declaring J Deepak and J Deepa, the former CM’s nephew and niece, as her legitimate heirs.

Here’s a list of other such claims by Jayalalithaa’s ‘heirs’ and the controversies around her properties:

1. In 2018, Amrutha from Karnataka, had filed a lawsuit, stating that she was the daughter of the late Telugu actor Shoban Babu and Jayalalithaa, but the High Court dismissed it as false.
2. In 2017, a 28-year-old man, Krishnamurthy, who claimed to be the son of Jayalalithaa and Shoban Babu, was arrested. The man’s arrest came more than 10 days after the Madras High Court directed the police to do so as his claims were proven to be fake.
3. Veda Nilayam, the sprawling bungalow located at Poes Garden area in Chennai where Jayalalithaa lived for over three decades, was originally purchased in 1967 by Jayalalithaa and Vedavalli for a mere Rs 1.32 lakh. Its current market value is said to be nearly Rs 100 crore. In 2020, it was handed over to the then AIADMK government, which had planned to convert the residence into a memorial for public. In November 2021, the Madras High Court cancelled the acquisition of Veda Nilayam. Meanwhile, the court directed the state government to hand over the residence to J Deepak and J Deepa, after a long legal battle.
4. Twenty-six years ago, with Subramanian Swamy as the chief petitioner, Jayalalithaa was initially convicted for misusing her office during her tenure as the CM from 1991 to 1996. Some of the allegations involved spending on her foster son’s lavish wedding in 1996 and her acquisition of properties worth more than Rs 66.65 crore, including jewellery, luxury cars and investments. The trial lasted 18 years and was transferred from Chennai to Bengaluru. A special court in 2014 convicted all of the accused — J Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala (a close aide of Jayalalithaa), Sasikala’s sister-in-law Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran — and sentenced them to four years’ imprisonment. In May 2015, the Karnataka HC overturned the verdict, acquitting those accused of all the charges. This paved the way for Jayalalithaa’s return to power in May 2015. In September 2017, the Supreme Court overruled the Karnataka HC order, where Sasikala and the other accused were convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, as well as fined Rs 10 crore each. The case against Jayalalithaa was abated as she had died, but fines were levied on her properties.

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