A forged will comes to light after more than 20 years.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: It was a battle royale played out in the courts for over 20 years. At stake was the country’s largest surviving regal fortune belonging to the Maharaja of Faridkot, in Punjab, Sir Harinder Singh Brar.
The court has finally ruled that the surviving members of the royal family, two septuagenarian sisters, would inherit a fortune worth a mind-boggling $4.2 billion that includes the sprawling Faridkot House in the heart of Delhi, Manimajra Fort in Faridkot, his mountain retreat at Mashobra, near the Viceroy’s summer residence in the foothills of the Himalayas, and a fleet of vintage cars in properties in Shimla. Other assets include Rolls-Royces, military cars and several Second World War aircraft which the Maharajah kept at his 22-acre aerodrome.
The court concluded that a will was forged by the royal staff, doctoring it to their favor. The Chandigarh magistrate ruled that the sisters had been cheated out of their inheritance by their father’s staff in collusion with lawyers who forged the will several years before the Maharaja died.
It was after the Rajah’s death in 1989, his three daughters, widow and elderly mother were stunned to see that the vast wealth left behind had been inherited by an army of royal retainers via a trust. Ironically, the daughters were given the title of office –bearers of this trust called the Meharwal Khewaji Trust for measly monthly salaries.
Enraged and feeling cheated, the sisters launched a legal tirade in 1992. But one of them, Maheepinder Kaur died in 2002, following heart failure at her Mashobra home.
The wealth would now be equally shared by the other two sisters, Amrit Kaur and Deepinder. But the inheritance would not change much of their lifestyle as they both already live a life of luxury. “My father was a very loving and caring man towards all of us. I knew he could never write such a foolish will,” Amrit Kaur told The Times of India newspaper, at her Chandigarh residence, after the legal outcome.
Deepinder has been the Maharaniadirani of Burdwan, near Calcutta. She married the heir to the princely state, in 1959, and her husband Maharajadhiraja Dr. Saday Chand Mehtab’s father owned the Jahangir Diamond – the celebrated 83-carat stone once set in the beak of one of the Mughal peacock thrones. Amrit Kaur had married a “commoner”, who retired as a high-ranking police officer.
Many of the properties and estates are believed to have fallen into neglect since the Meharwal Khewarji Trust took control of them. Revenue officials launched a long investigation into the estate at Mashobra to establish its ownership and found it had been illegally transferred to the trust.
India, home to many princely states, has been witness to many such royal disputes—the house of Pataudi, Travancore and Gwalior had seen similar clashes of interests. A venomous dispute is still raging between the grandchildren of Gayatri Devi, the Rajmata of Jaipur, and their relatives over their father’s wealth, estimated between $200 to $400 million. The dispute is still in the courts after 16 years.
Property feuds have always troubled royal dynasties and it had increased after India gained independence in 1947 when the land of these princely states was confiscated. With a shrinking supply of land, these legal disputes have taken a new vigor too.
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