Today’s articles (from
“The Telegraph”, “The Guardian” and “The Daily Mail”) all talk about a recent
court case here in India where the children of the Maharaja of Faridkot went to court to claim the inheritance
owed to them.
"We have won the case after 21 years," their advocate Vikas Jain exclaimed to the news agency AFP as he celebrated a landmark victory.
Their victory marks the end of a series of bitter legal battles over the vast riches of several Indian royal families. The dispute between the grandchildren of the late Gyatri Devi, the Rajmata of Jaipur, and their relatives over their father's £250 million estate, is still in the courts 16 years after it began.
Maharajah's daughters inherit £2bn after court battle
over 'forged' will
The legacy immediately aroused suspicions and last week a judge declared that it had been "forged and fabricated". Local press reports quoted the heiresses' lawyer, Vikram Jain, as saying the will was now considered illegal and thus void.
Indian princesses finally win battle for £2.6BILLION
inheritance after court accepts that their Maharajah father's will was forged
PUBLISHED:| UPDATED:
There is also more than 10billion rupees (£110million) worth of gold, jewelry studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
Brar himself was a boy-king who grew up amid the final gasps of India's royal families. He was crowned maharajah of the tiny kingdom of Faridkot in western Punjab - the last maharajah it would turn out - at the age of three, upon his father's death.
Brar's wife, mother and oldest daughter - the presumed heir - were cut off without a penny.
The family's lawyer, Vikas Jain, told India's Financial
Express newspaper that some of the fortune had been squandered away during the
long case.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2380866/Indian-princesses-finally-win-battle-2-6BILLION-inheritance-court-accepts-Maharajah-fathers-forged.html#ixzz2aVzSueFb
Enjoy:
Indian princesses win
£2.5 billion inheritance after epic battle over father's will
Two elderly Indian princesses have inherited a
£2.5 billion fortune after winning one of the country's longest-running royal
legal battles.
By Dean
Nelson, New Delhi
4:47PM BST 29 Jul 2013
The two surviving children of
the late Maharaja of Faridkot, Sir Harinder Singh Brar, will now take control
of one of the country's largest surviving royal fortunes after a court ruled
they had been cheated out of their inheritance by palace staff who forged his
final will.
The late Maharajah died aged
74 in 1989 after a long decline following the death of his son and heir Tikka
in a motor accident.
He left a vast fortune
including Faridkot House in the heart of Delhi, Manimajra Fort in Faridkot, his
mountain retreat at Mashobra, close to the Viceroy's summer residence in the
foothills of the Indian Himalayas,
and fleet of vintage cars in properties in Shimla.
He owned a number of Rolls
Royces, military cars and several World War Two aircraft kept at his 22 acre
aerodrome.
His three daughters, widow and
elderly mother had expected to inherit his estate, but found instead he had
left a 'will' giving it all to his army of staff and retainers through a trust
established for their exclusive benefit.
The daughters were given
positions as officers of the 'Meharwal Khewaji Trust', created under the terms
of his surprise will, and nominal salaries of between £12 and £15 pounds a
month.
The three surviving sisters
launched a legal action to challenge the will in 1992, three years after their
father's death, which eventually took 21 years to resolve. One of the sisters,
Maheepinder Kaur, died of heart failure, aged 62, at her home in Mashobra in
2002.
Her two surviving older
sisters, Amrit Kaur and Deepinder, known as 'Princess Bunty,' will now share
the inheritance as new billionaires, although sources close to the family said
it will not greatly change their lifestyles. They are both in their seventies
and continued to live in some luxury after they married.
Deepinder Kaur has been the
'Maharaniadirani of Burdwan', near Calcutta, since she married the heir of the
Burdwan princely state in 1959. Her husband is Maharajadhiraja Dr Saday Chand
Mehtab whose father owned the Jahangir Diamond – the celebrated 83 carat stone
which was once set in the beak of one of the Mughal peacock thrones. He sold it
at auction in London to make the family even richer.
Neither sister has lived in
hardship as they fought for their rightful inheritance. "They are very
well-off indeed and have been having a good life," said a source close to
the case who said the sisters are determined to protect their privacy following
their victory.
Many of the properties and
estates are believed to have fallen into neglect and disrepair 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.
Last week a Chandigarh
magistrate ruled that the sisters had been cheated out of their inheritance by
their late father's staff in collusion with local lawyers who forged a will
several years before he died in 1989.
"We have won the case after 21 years," their advocate Vikas Jain exclaimed to the news agency AFP as he celebrated a landmark victory.
Yesterday he declined to
comment further after the two sisters informed him they would not be making any
further statements.
Their victory marks the end of a series of bitter legal battles over the vast riches of several Indian royal families. The dispute between the grandchildren of the late Gyatri Devi, the Rajmata of Jaipur, and their relatives over their father's £250 million estate, is still in the courts 16 years after it began.
The Faridkot royals have a
long history of losing and regaining their estate dating back to the Sikh Wars.
The family are descendants of desert rulers in Rajasthan who established two
rival princely states in Punjab, both of which were seized by the Sikh ruler
Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1807.
The family allied with the
British East India Company, which restored their estates to them two years
later. The family played key roles in supporting the British in the Sikh Wars,
the 1857 Indian Mutiny and the Afghan War.
The late Maharaja Sir Harinder
Singh Brar, a senior officer who served in the Deccan Horse cavalry regiment,
was regarded as one of the more astute of the former Indian royals who had
managed to retain his wealth after India's independence stripped them of their
power.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Maharajah's daughters inherit £2bn after court battle
over 'forged' will
Lawyers
for trust who stood to inherit estate say they will challenge court ruling,
which makes sisters 33rd richest in India
- Jason Burke in
Delhi
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 July 2013
15.50 BST
Now,
a knockout punch may finally have been landed and the Maharajah of Faridkot's
estate – complete with 300-year-old forts, a fleet of vintage Rolls-Royce cars,
jewellery, a hugely valuable chunk of real estate in the capital, Delhi, and
even an aerodrome – will revert to his daughters. The will, made seven years
before his death in 1989, has been found by the top state court to have been
forged.
Such
disputes are common in India, where a succession of
empires, mass migrations and chaotic politics have left a tangle of claims to
property. But few involve such colossal sums.
There
has been no public comment from the two elderly women who will inherit the
estate and join India's club of billionaires. They enter the list of the
booming economy's wealthiest people at joint 33rd. If their fortunes are
counted as one, the sisters would take 20th place.
The
will of their father, Sir Harinder Singh Brar, the last Maharajah of Faridkot,
left everything to a trust to be run by his servants and lawyers when he died in
1989. His eldest daughter was disinherited on the grounds she had married
against his wishes. The other was given a stipend of just 1,200 rupees a month
– about £13.50 today. The maharajah, who had inherited the title in 1918, left
nothing to his mother or wife.
The legacy immediately aroused suspicions and last week a judge declared that it had been "forged and fabricated". Local press reports quoted the heiresses' lawyer, Vikram Jain, as saying the will was now considered illegal and thus void.
Lawyers
for the trust said they would contest the decision. "The will was real and it was not
forged. The trust, after going through the order in detail, could challenge it
in an upper court," said Ranjit Singh, counsel for the trust.
Little
is known about the two new aristocrats. One has been reported to be living in
the Punjab province near Faridkot, while the other lives in the eastern city of
Kolkata or, possibly, abroad. A third daughter died more than a decade ago.
Though
the Faridkot fortune is undoubtedly substantial, it is less impressive in
comparison with those of India's most wealthy. According to Forbes, the
software tycoon Azim Premji is worth $12.2bn (£8bn) and the steel magnate
Lakshmi Mittal is worth $16bn. The fortune of the industrialist Mukesh Ambani
is calculated at more than $20bn, 10 times the Faridkot inheritance.
Most
of India's often fabulously rich aristocracy lost much of their property when
the country gained its independence in 1947. Much of the country was originally
a series of nearly 300 kingdoms, princedoms and minor statelets. Some, such as
Hyderabad, were vast. Others comprised a few fields and an old fort.
Most
aristocrats were stripped of any remaining honours, privileges and revenue
provided by the government by the prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1972. There
have been periodic attempts to reverse the measures.
Maintenance
costs for hundreds of palaces owned by the government are often astronomical.
The government in the western state of Rajasthan has tried to sell properties ranging from merchant's homes to vast
forts complete with elephant gates, but with limited success.
- ©
2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All
rights reserved.
Indian princesses finally win battle for £2.6BILLION
inheritance after court accepts that their Maharajah father's will was forged
- After he died, the
maharajah's daughters received a pittance, despite fortune
- A disputed will left the
estate in control of his former servants
- Now the daughters, who are in
their 80s, have finally won their birthright
PUBLISHED:| UPDATED:
The Maharajah of Faridkot: A court ruled that his 1982 will
was a forgery, but his daughters have successfully fought the ruling and will
now inherit the estate
It has all the makings of a best-selling novel.
An Indian maharajah crowned as a toddler and rich beyond
imagination falls into a deep depression in old age after losing his only son.
After his own death a few months later, his daughters,
the princesses, don't get the palaces, gold and vast lands they claim as their
birthright.
Instead, they are given a few dollars a month from palace
officials they accuse of scheming to usurp the royal billions with a forged
will. The fight rages for decades.
On Saturday, an Indian court brought this chapter to a
close, ruling that the will of Maharajah Harinder Singh Brar of Faridkot was
fabricated.
His daughters will now inherit the estimated £2.6billion
estate, instead of a trust run by his former servants and palace officials.
Chief judicial magistrate Rajnish Kumar Sharma, in the
northern city of Chandigarh, finally gave his ruling on the case filed by the
maharaja's eldest daughter, Amrit Kaur, in 1992, a court official said Monday.
The court official spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The Faridkot riches were legend in India's Punjab state.
The estate includes a 350-year-old fort, palaces and forests lands in Faridkot,
a mansion surrounded by acres of land in the heart of India's capital New Delhi
and similar properties spread across four states.
There is also a stable of 18 cars including a Rolls
Royce, a Daimler and a Bentley, all in running condition.
In addition, there is an aerodrome in Faridkot, spread
over 200 acres, which is being used by the Punjab state administration and the
army.
There is also more than 10billion rupees (£110million) worth of gold, jewelry studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
The royal's two daughters will now inherit a vast
fortune, including Faridkot House on Copernicus Marg in New Delhi
Brar himself was a boy-king who grew up amid the final gasps of India's royal families. He was crowned maharajah of the tiny kingdom of Faridkot in western Punjab - the last maharajah it would turn out - at the age of three, upon his father's death.
After India won independence from Britain in 1947, Faridkot
and hundreds of other small kingdoms were absorbed into the country, royal
titles and power were abolished and the royal families were given a fixed
salary from the Indian government. That payment, the 'privy purse', was
abolished in 1971.
Maharani Narinder Kaur, the wife of Maharajah Harinder
Singh Brar. The couple were fond of shopping while on holiday in England and
would stay at the Savoy - sometimes for as long as four months
Some royals slipped into penury, while some converted
their former palaces into luxury hotels to provide them an income.
A few, like Brar, held onto their enormously profitable
real estate and continued to live a rarefied life.
But in 1981, Brar's only son, Tikka Harmohinder Singh,
was killed in a road accident and he tumbled into a deep depression. It was
then, his three daughters' argued, that his trusted aides connived to deprive
his family of their fortune.
They set up the Meharawal Khewaji Trust, naming all the
maharajah's servants, officials and lawyers as trustees.
A short time after Brar's death in 1989, a will leaving
all his wealth to the trust became public.
The two younger princesses,
Deepinder Kaur and Maheepinder Kaur, were given monthly salaries of $20 and $18
respectively.
Brar's wife, mother and oldest daughter - the presumed heir - were cut off without a penny.
The trust told the court that Amrit Kaur had been shunned
by her father for marrying against his wishes.
Kaur told the court that her father had never made a will
and that she had remained with him until his death.
In the two decades that it has taken for the court to
give its ruling, much has changed. The value of the estates has increased
manifold.
The New Delhi properties alone are worth about
£230million. One of his daughters, Maheepinder Kaur, died. Amrit and Deepinder
are in their 80s.
The trust is weighing a challenge to the Chandigarh court
order in a higher court, news reports said Monday.
'The will was real and it was not forged. The trust,
after going through the order in detail, could challenge it in an upper court,'
Ranjit Singh, a lawyer for the trust, was quoted as telling The Times of India
newspaper.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2380866/Indian-princesses-finally-win-battle-2-6BILLION-inheritance-court-accepts-Maharajah-fathers-forged.html#ixzz2aVzSueFb
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