Even as the first death anniversary of Jayalalithaa is near, a Bangalore-based woman has claimed that she was born to the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. And she petitioned the Supreme Court calling for a DNA test after exhuming Jayalalithaa’s body from its resting place. The apex court dismissed the case and asked her to approach the high court.
In March 2017, after Jayalalithaa’s death , a person called Krishnamoorthy had moved the Madras High Court claiming he was born to Jayalalithaa and late Telugu actor Shoban Babu. Babu and Jayalalithaa had lived together for a year at her Poes Garden residence and Jayalalithaa had even written about in Tamil weekly “Kumudham.” Krishnamoorthy had submitted some documents, including a 'deed of adoption' and sought the court's help to declare him as her son and hence, entitled to her properties, including the Poes Garden residence. The documents were later found to be fabricated and the man was arrested on the orders of the court.
Now it is the turn of Amruth to claim through a petition in the Supreme Court , that she was born to Jayalalithaa on August 14, 1980, at Jayalalithaa's home in Chennai's Mylapore locality and that she was brought up in Bangalore by Jayalalithaa's elder sister Shylaja and her husband Sarathy. She had always taken them to be her real parents until a confession by Sarathy just before his death last March. Shylaja had died in 2015. She says Jayalalithaa's maternal aunt Jayalakshmi and the childless Shylaja and Sarathy took a vow before Jayalalithaa and God not to reveal the facts of her birth, and that co-petitioners Lalitha and Ranjani were privy to this. They had protected the secret so it will not affect Jayalalithaa’s political career in any manner.
Amrutha’s claim could also prove to be false as Jayalalithaa had only biological sibling – her elder brother Jayakaumar who had died in 1996. His two children Deepa and Deepak have now laid claim over the Poes Garden bungalow as the biological successors.
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She says her recent efforts to establish her maternity were thwarted by Sasikala's supporters, and her representations to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, individual Supreme Court judges and the CBI brought no results. The objective, the petition says, was "to uphold the dignity of the family as they belong to a very religious, orthodox and cultured Brahmin family and the birth of the Petitioner No. 1 (Amrutha) came as a shock to everyone".
Amrutha says she studied at Aruna Nursery and Primary School in Bangalore. She says she met Jayalalithaa several times and received a mother's affection from the politician, which surprised her. Also whenever Jayalalithaa visited Bangalore she stayed at the home of Shylaja and Sarathy --- which the petition says can be established from the records of the Tamil Nadu government's protocol list for 2007-08. Similarly records of the protocol list from 1996 to 2016 would reveal that Amrutha used to frequently visit Jayalalithaa in Chennai.
Amrutha’s claim could be dubious as it was well known that the Sasikala family did not allow even Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa and nephew Deepak to visit her as they wanted to cut off Jayalalithaa’s emotional attachment to her relatives. Only after Jayalalithaa’s hospitalization Deepak was drafted by the Sasikala family to have a relative on hand in case a relative had to sign papers for medical treatment abroad.
Amrutha says her attempts to meet Jayalalithaa four times at Apollo Hospital during her last days but was thwarted by the police on Sasikala’s orders. After her death Jayaalalithaa was buried without consulting the family elders. “Jayalalithaa had never expressed any wish to be buried after her death,” she further claimed. After it was pointed out to Sasikala that a male relative should perform the final rites Jayalalithaa's nephew Deepak was permitted to perform some basic ceremonies along with her at the burial site. Now Amrutha wants Jayalalithaa’s body to exhumed, to perform a DNA test to prove her maternity and later cremated as per Hindu rituals.
