Battle rages for wealth of a socialist

The assets, running into crores, have become a point of “raging dispute” with the “official-but-estranged family” of the labour leader apparently making a foolproof case against a section of his “political associates” which may be on the offensive to claim the declared wealth of the once stormy petrel of Indian politics.

The two “warring” parties are identified as Leila Kabir, who walked out on Fernandes in 1984 but is making a comeback in “the winter” of  the veteran leader to claim his “legacy,” and his long-time political associate Jaya Jaitly.

Fernandes was married on July 21, 1971, to Leila Kabir. Leila lived separately but did not divorce her husband. Leila and her son Sean have asked the police to ensure that no entry was allowed to the 3 Krishna Menon Marg bungalow, where Fernandes lived for long, without their permission.

The police last week prevented Anil Sahni, a Rajya Sabha MP from Fernandes’s Janata Dal (United), from entering the 3 Krishna Menon Marg, with cops taking him to the police station and showing him a letter from Fernandes’s son which sought “regulated” entry into the bungalow.

A sizeable property of the socialist leader was in the epicentre of the approaching battle of nerves even when the leader was hale and hearty. Fernandes’s failing health, particularly memory and eyesight, seems to have hastened the fight for property.
The moveable and immovable assets as declared by Fernandes while contesting the Muzaffer Nagar seat, Bihar, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections include: cash— Rs 20,000; deposits in banks, financial institutions and non-banking financial companies — Rs 70,359,798; and bonds, debentures and shares in companies — Rs 60,000. The total movable assets are valued at Rs 70,439,798.

The immovable assets, including house/apartments, are estimated at Rs 25,000,000. He has no liabilities. The warring parties have also reportedly staked claim to a property in Hubli in Karnataka and a flat in south Delhi’s fashionable Hauz Khas area.
 Leila Kabir, daughter of former educationist and Union home minister Humayun Kabir, and her son Sean have descended on the national capital. Jaitly — who once headed the Samata Party, the former “avatar” of the Janata Dal (United) — is perceived as the main “threat” by the Fernandes’s “official family.”

The family has asked the Delhi police to ensure that those wanting to meet the Fernandes must seek their permission. The ailing Rajya Sabha MP is, however, not in a condition to recognise anyone, according to sources close to him.  
Sean, 35, an investment banker in New York, has moved into the official bungalow along with his mother apparently to ensure “the best possible treatment” for his father. The police complaint is made to officially bar “outsiders” from getting access to Fernandes and to communicate that “the family is around and available to the leader.” 

Leila has reportedly invited Fernandes’s close friends, including JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, veteran socialist Surendra Mohan, lawyer Swaraj Kaushal and Fernandes’s brother Freddie, to the Krishna Menon Marg bungalow to buttress her legitimate claim to the “heritage”.