Niece gets keys to Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden bungalow

After an intense and long legal battle, Deepa Jayakumar and Deepak Jayakumar on Friday received the keys of the palatial Poes Garden bungalow of their late aunt J Jayalalithaa, who died in 2016 without leaving a will or appointing a legal heir to oversee her properties.

Deepa and Deepak, the daughter and son of Jayalalithaa’s only brother Jayakumar, were handed over the keys of the bungalow by Chennai District Collector J Vijaya Rani on Friday afternoon, in line with a Madras High Court order issued on November 24 quashing a decision by the then AIADMK government to convert the mansion into a memorial for the late chief minister.

Immediately after receiving the keys, Deepa along with her husband Madhavan drove to ‘Veda Nilayam’, one of the most powerful addresses in Tamil Nadu for three decades, and posed for pictures from the balcony, Jayalalithaa’s favourite place to greet her cadre and supporters.

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“This is no small achievement. I don’t consider this as a legal victory. It (owning the bungalow) is my right and I am glad that I am able to enter this place where my aunt lived after so many decades. My happiness knows no bounds and I am extremely happy,” Deepa, who was flanked by her husband Madhavan, said at the ‘Veda Nilayam’.

Deepa, who along with her brother was declared as legal heirs of Jayalalithaa by the Madras High Court in 2020, said the family plans to move to the Poes Garden mansion and ruled out plans to throw open the bungalow for the public.

“Our first priority is to take up maintenance work of the bungalow. We plan to move in. This is the place where I was born, and coming back here after decades is overwhelming. Finally, we have been able to get our due,” Deepa said.

Deepa also said that she was prepared to face the issue legally if AIADMK moves appeals against the High Court order.

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The High Court order is a setback to former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his then deputy O Panneerselvam who issued the orders to acquire the residence against the wishes of Deepa and Deepak and converted it into a memorial. Though the memorial was inaugurated in January, it was not thrown open to the public due to a court order.

The sprawling mansion in upscale Poes Garden was where Jayalalithaa resided for nearly 50 years after her mother, Sandhya, bought the bungalow in the late 1960s.

The bungalow, whose market value is nearly Rs 100 crore as of date, was purchased by Jayalalithaa’s mother Sandhya for a mere Rs 1.32 lakh in 1967. Sandhya bought the front portion of the mansion in the 1960s, but Jayalalithaa expanded the bungalow by acquiring nearby properties.

For Jayalalithaa, the Poes Garden residence was more than a home. A voracious reader, Jayalalithaa had set up a library that had nearly 8,000 books overlooking her bedroom on the first floor. After her death in 2016, the Tamil Nadu government had in 2017 announced that the Poes Garden bungalow will be converted into a memorial for Jayalalithaa.

A trip to Poes Garden residence was nothing short of a pilgrimage to lakhs of AIADMK cadre when Jayalalithaa, who nurtured the party founded by her mentor M G Ramachandran, was alive.

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