Amid row over will, Jayadev says Aishwarya ‘not my son’Son Of Ex-Wife Smita Given A Matoshree Floor

Mumbai:On the third day of his testimony in the Bombay high court, late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s second-born son Jayadev, who has challenged the validity of his father’s 2011 will, stunned the courtroom by saying, for the first time, that “Aishwarya is not my son.” Aishwarya (20), till date, was known as the younger son of Jayadev and his ex- wife Smita Thackeray. The court proceedings turned in-camera after that.
Jayadev is embroiled in a bitter battle with younger brother Uddhav over the bequests made by their father, who passed away in November 2012.In the will, Thackeray bequeathed almost all his assets, including a major portion of his landmark bungalow in Bandra (East), Matoshree, to Uddhav, also his political heir, but almost nothing to the other surviving son, Jayadev.
The third floor is where Uddhav and wife Rashmi reside with their two sons, and the first floor was left to grandson Aishwarya. Smita, Jayadev’s ex-wife, is allowed, under the will, to visit her son Aishwarya. Her elder son, Rahul, who is in his late twenties, has not been bequeathed anything by his grandfather.
On Wednesday, as Jayadev answered questions put to him in his cross-examination by Uddhav’s counsel Rohit Kapadia, who is trying to establish inconsistencies and contradictions in his claims and statements, he was asked about his stay at Matoshree. Jayadev said he divorced Smita in 2004 and stayed only sometimes after that in Matoshree, but stayed on the second floor, at nights too. Justice Gautam Patel, hearing the case, asked if this meant he never stayed on the first floor. Jayadev, who had said he used to spend nights at a Kalina house in 1995 before shifting to his house at Dallas Apartment, in Bandra (East) a few years later, replied in the affirmative. Asked why, he said it was “often shut”. “Someone, a stranger, used to stay there, I don’t know who.” When questioned by Kapadia if he had asked who it was, he said he had asked his father, who said someone named “Aishwarya was staying”.
Kapadia then immediately asked him, “Is he your son?”, taking everyone by surprise. Jayadev, who answers in Marathi, began by saying he had wanted to explain something and “bring it on record” for a while now. The judge asked him to reply with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Jayadev said, “No.” His answer coincided with the court breaking for lunch. Post-lunch, the judge, on an application to make the proceedings in-camera, did so, which meant the media and others not involved with the hearing could not be present in the courtroom.
Uddhav and other executors moved the HC for a probate of the will in 2012. Jayadev contested the will and questioned his father’s faculties at the time he made the will in December 2011. Renowned doctor Jaleel Parkar of Lilavati hospital, Thackeray’s doctor and one of the witnesses to the will, testified in HC that Bal Thackeray was “in the proper frame of mind” when he made the will.
On Wednesday, Jayadev, who has also sought a partition of Matoshree for his share, said he used to keep visiting his father till a month before his demise. Asked why he did not continue his visits, he said, “I was in touch with him over the telephone and he said he would call me if needed. He asked me to keep my phone by my side at all times.” Asked how his father’s health was at the time, he replied that it was alright.
The proceedings will continue on Thursday.