Paternity suit: HC seeks Jaya’s blood samples

With the Bengaluru-based 37-year-old woman Amrutha Sarathy moving the Madras High Court with a petition to declare her as late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s daughter, Justice Vaidyanathan on Friday asked if Apollo Hospitals where the former AIADMK supremo was admitted before her death had her blood samples to conduct a DNA test.

While the court has not yet admitted Amrutha’s petition and is only examining its maintainability, the judge impleaded Jayalalithaa’s nephew J Deepak and niece J Deepa – both born to her only brother Jayakumar – as respondents in the case.

Amrutha had recently approached the Supreme Court claiming that three months ago the couple whom she believed to be her parents had told that her that she was actually born to Jayalalithaa and Telugu actor Shoban Babu. She wanted to court to order a DNA test to establish her biological mother as well as exhume Jayalalithaa’s body buried at the Marina beach here so that she could be cremated as per Vaishnavite rituals. The Supreme Court dismissed her petition and asked her instead to approach the Madras High Court.

During the hearing of her petition in the High Court, Justice Vaidyanathan also wanted to know from her lawyer as to why she had not filed a suit to establish that Shoban Babu was her biological father. To this her lawyer merely said that only three months ago she knew about her real parents.