Chennai: Former AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala laid the foundation stone for a memorial for her friend near the Kodanad Estate bungalow recently.
The memorial will come up near gate no 10 of the sprawling 900-acre estate. Sources said the memorial will be funded by Sasikala.
This is the first time that Sasikala, who came out of prison in 2021 after serving a four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, has visited the Kodanad Estate.
Nestled amidst lush tea gardens, the luxurious estate with a magnificent white bungalow and a private lake was Jayalalithaa’s favourite summer retreat for over two decades. Jayalalithaa had spent months together inside the heavily fortified estate, jointly owned by her and Sasikala, when her party had occupied the opposition benches in the Assembly.
“She would become a child inside the estate. She loved to drive a club car and go for a long walk inside the premises. She would make tea for all of us whenever we went to Kodanad. She loved being there,” Sasikala had once said about Jayalalithaa’s life in the estate.
Controversies surrounding the Kodanad Estate date back to the early 1990s when it was bought from its British owner. It is alleged that Jayalalithaa and Sasikala coerced Peter Karl Edward Craig Jones, whose father William Jones owned the bungalow since 1975, to sell the estate amid his family’s reservation. Jones opened up in 2017, after Jayalalithaa’s death, and narrated his family’s ordeal when they were forced to sell their property.
Published 21 January 2024, 21:43 IST