Four to tango

Jayalalithaa’s heirs are caught in a property dispute with the state government and the income tax department

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

VEDA NILAYAM, 36 Poes Garden in Chennai, is quiet. The black iron gates of the white mansion are closed, and only a couple policemen stand guard at what was once the city’s most famous address: the residence of chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who died on December 5, 2016.

The building, however, is at the centre of a dispute. The AIADMK government wants to make it a memorial, but her niece Deepa Jayakumar and nephew Deepak Jayaraman oppose the plan. The income tax department is also interested in it. It recently attached her bungalow at Siruthavoor near Chennai and her tea estate in Kodanad.

“The Madras High Court declared us as her legal heirs in May this year,” said Deepak. “But beyond those papers, we have not received anything.”

Soon after the verdict, Deepak took possession of Jayalalithaa’s vineyard in Hyderabad. Deepa said the authorities had denied them information about other properties. “I don’t understand what is happening,” she said. “The authorities are not even sharing the details of properties solely held by her, apart from those in Poes Garden and Hyderabad. We cannot even access the documents.”

It is a knotty problem as some of the assets are registered in the name of companies co-owned by Jayalalithaa. Her assistant V.K. Sasikala, who has been in jail since 2017 after her conviction in a disproportionate assets case, holds stakes in several of these companies. So far, neither Sasikala nor her relatives have made any claim on the disputed properties.