CHENNAI: Number 81, Veda Nilayam,
Poes Garden
, was an address that lent its name to a neighbourhood and a site that for 25 years was symbolic with the weight of political power.
But on Tuesday, a day after the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, a question mark hung heavy over the fate of the 24,000sqft bungalow: As of now there is no news of a will that Jayalalithaa has left behind.
Real estate experts in the city estimate that the property, by its present market value, is worth Rs 90 crore. Will her political heir apparent Sasikalaa Natarajan stay put in Veda Nilayam or will Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar and her brother Dipak stake claim to the property? Or will history repeat itself as in the case of Jayalalithaa’s mentor M G Ramachandran, whose house in Ramapuram, Chennai remained mired in legal disputes decades after his death?
After Jayalalithaa’s funeral on Tuesday, Sasikalaa headed back by car to Veda Nilayam.
MGR did leave behind a will and nominate an executor to enforce the terms of the will. His landed assets landed in legal complications nonetheless. After two decades of battles in the courts, the Madras high court recently appointed a former judge as the administrator of MGR’s assets.
Jayalalithaa and her mother Sandhya purchased the Poes Garden property in 1967 for Rs 1.32 lakh. Being class II heirs of Jayalalithaa, her nephew and niece could, if they want to, stake claim to a share of the Poes Garden property, originally acquired by their grandmother, legal experts say.
Apart from her Chennai house, Jayalalithaa’s fixed assets and investments were worth more than Rs 80 crore. In her affidavit filed for this year assembly election, she declared her total assets at a conservative Rs 118.58 crore. It valued the Poes Garden residence at only Rs 43.96 crore. Other immovable assets included two estates in Kodanad (worth Rs 3.33 crore), investments (Rs 20.12 lakh) in Sasi Enterprises and in Royal Valley Floritech Exports (Rs 40.41 lakh).
She declared commercial property in Sri Nagar Colony, Hyderabad, valued at Rs 13.34 crore, and 14.5 acres of agricultural land in Ranga Reddy district near Hyderabad worth Rs 14.44 crore. All her properties, together, were valued at several hundred crores of rupees, going by the present market value. But for the Poes Garden bungalow and some inherited jewellery, a special court has attached all of these properties in the disproportionate assets case.
Jayalalithaa had a big bank balance too. She had deposits of Rs 10.63 crore in various banks in the city and 1,250 kg of silver worth Rs 3 crore. These do not include gold and silver ornaments the court seized from her. The issue is pending in the Supreme Court, which on June 7 reserved its judgment in the case.