Mumbai : On the third day of his deposition in the Bombay High Court, Jaidev Thackeray had a startling revelation to make: that Aishwarya is not his son.
The ‘disclosure’ was made before a single-judge bench of Justice Gautam Patel, who is currently hearing the suit filed by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray against elder brother Jaidev.
Jaidev, the estranged son of the late Shiv Sena partriarch Balasaheb Thackeray, has challenged the ‘validity’ of his father’s will.
Aishwarya is the only ‘grandson’ of Balasaheb who is named in the will of the deceased saffron leader. In fact, Balasaheb had willed an entire floor of the Matoshree building – the Thackeray residence — to Aishwarya, the son of Jaidev’s second wife Smita Thackeray.
On Wednesday, when counsel Rohit Kapadia, who is appearing for Uddhav, began cross-examining Jaidev and asked if Aishwarya was his (Jaidev’s) son, the latter replied, “Since a long time, I have wanted to clarify and put this on record that he (Aishwarya) is not my son.”
The instant Jaidev made the ‘disclosure’ the bench dispersed for lunch and later both the lawyers were summoned to Justice Patel’s chamber.
In sync with what was discussed in the chamber, when the post-lunch hearing resumed, Justice Patel asked all journalists, other advocates and the public to move out of the court.
Kapadia initially asked Jaidev where he resides in ‘Matoshree,’ the family residence of the Thackeray family, whenever he is on a visit. “I always lived on the second floor where my father used to live, since he often asked me to stay with him,” Jaidev responded.
Subsequently, Jaidev was asked why he did not occupy or live on the first floor of the family’s residence, despite the fact that the floor was renovated.
Responding to this, Jaidev said, “Mostly, the first floor would be locked up or occupied by people whom I did not know.” “My father (Balasaheb) told me that one Aishwarya stays there,” Jaidev added by way of explanation.
Kapadia cross-questioned Jaidev and asked him if Aishwarya was his son, to which Jaidev replied in negative. With this revelation, the tussle between the two brothers (Uddhav and Jaidev) over their deceased father’s will has turned murky.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Jaidev had told the bench that he used to sleep in a separate apartment he had bought in Kalina, as he (Jaidev) wanted to maintain ‘domestic’ harmony in the house. This was in the backdrop of Jaidev’s opposition to ex-wife Smita’s political ‘ambitions.’
Jaidev told the court that he had never stayed in Matoshree after 2004, the year when he ‘legally’ parted ways with his second wife Smita Thackeray.
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