A Bengaluru woman’s decision to move the Supreme Court claiming to be the biological daughter of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and seeking a DNA test to prove the same has more than just raised eyebrows in political circles.
And although the apex court has refused to entertain 37-year-old Amrutha’s plea and told her to approach the Karnataka High Court, the larger question is can a DNA test be ordered, especially since the former Chief Minister is no more?
While Amrutha has sought the court’s permission to exhume Jayalalithaa’s remains in order to facilitate a DNA test. Vijaykumar, retired Director of Forensic Sciences Department in Tamil Nadu says that may not be required. “The court has to decide whether to exhume Jayalalithaa’s remains. But you can verify DNA based on blood samples from Jayalalithaa’s heirs.”
With Jayalalithaa having no children, and with Amrutha failing to mention the identity of her father in her writ petition before the Supreme Court, Vijaykumar explains that a DNA test is possible with the late CM’s living blood relatives. “As Jayalalithaa is no more, a DNA test can be performed on her siblings. One has to depend on the existing legal heirs. In this case, Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar and nephew Deepak Jayakumar are available.”
However, Deepa or Deepak will have to consent to giving their blood samples to enable Amrutha to prove that she is in fact Jayalalithaa’s biological daughter. Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa has in the past pronounced Amrutha to be a ‘fake’. “I have no idea who this is. They are fake people. Most of them cropped up in 2002 claiming to be our relatives. I know my dad and mom’s relatives, and I don’t know of any Amrutha. I have seen her in some TV programmes recently,” Deepa had told TNM in an interview last year.
On Monday, Amrutha Sarathy approached the Supreme Court seeking a DNA test to prove her claim that she is the biological daughter of Jayalalithaa.
In her petition, Amrutha says she was brought up as the daughter of Jayalalithaa’s late sister Shylaja and that it was only after the former CM’s demise that she came to know through her aunts – LS Lalitha and Ranjani Ravindranath – that she is Jayalalithaa’s biological daughter. Lalitha and Ranjani are related to Jayalalithaa, according to Amrutha.
However, as per records, Jayalalithaa has only one sibling, a younger brother named Jayakumar. Shylaja’s claim that she was Jayalalithaa’s sister had been contested by other members of the family.
“It was upon the death of Late Ms. J. Jayalalitha that Amrutha came to know through the close family relatives who are LS Lalitha and Ranjani Ravindranath that she is in fact the biological daughter of Late Ms. J. Jayalalitha and thus, to ascertain the same, the Petitioners herein are seeking the remedy under Article 32 of the Constitution of India for a declaration of the same through an identifiable method to know the maternity i.e., through deoxyribonucleic acid test (hereinafter referred to as DNA Test) which is to be undertaken by any Institute of National repute to ascertain and establish the maternity of the Petitioner No.1,” states the petition.
Amrutha also stated in her petition that when she was born on August 14, 1980, at Jayalalithaa’s Mylapore residence in Chennai, an “understanding” was arrived at between Jayalalithaa and the family members that her birth would not be disclosed, to “uphold the dignity of the family as they belong to a very religious, orthodox and cultured Brahmin family” and her birth would come as a shock to everyone.
Besides seeking a DNA test by exhuming Jayalalithaa’s body, Amrutha had also sought the court’s permission to cremate Jayalalithaa as per the rites, rituals and customs of Vaishnava Iyengars.
Meanwhile, LS Lalitha, who has been named in the petition and is Jayalalithaa’s cousin told TNM that she had not told Amrutha that she is her daughter.
“I have met Amrutha only once. Ranjani, who is my niece, brought her to me about six months ago. I told her what my mother had told me that Jayalalitha had a daughter. I didn’t say Amrutha is Jaylalithaa’s daughter,” Lalitha said.