BHUBANESWAR: For long, the royals of Paralakhemundi, one of Odisha’s most illustrious families, have stayed awayfrom the glaring archlights preferring a life of certain anonymity. The present controversy, though, threatens to bring into open their lives which once was so fiercely guarded.
As the Crime Branch investigation into the shocking suicide pact by palace manager Ananga Manjari Patra and her three siblings picks up pace, various facets of the royal family are slowly are coming to the fore. The 10-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) recorded statements of two siblings of Ananga Manjari on the day and collected the property details of Parala Maharaja Gopinath Gajapati Narayan Deo submitted to a Gajapati Court.
The royal scion’s wealth runs into rores of rupees with gold, diamonds and precious stones which are recorded in the property list. Besides, Gopinath had property in Bhubaneswar, Paralakhemundi, Visakhapatnam and Chennai. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the CB will verify the landed property from the tehsilldar and registrar offices. The SIT members also spoke to LK Adhikary, the legal counsel of Gopinath Gajapati, and found out that there was an injunction in 2010 in connection with the royal property which meant no transfer of the property was possible. However, property dispute between Gopinath Gajapati and his younger brother Sarbagjnan Jagannath Narayan Deo is an established fact. That the two royal siblings have been entangled in a legal battle is acknowledged by the younger brother himself. As per the Law of Primogeniture, the eldest male child becomes the sole heir of the royal property.
However, the law was abolished in 1956 when the Hindu Succession Act came into force. “Our grandfather Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Deo was alive and remained Maharaja of Parala till 1974 which, in my contention, meant that the Law of Primogeniture did not apply in this case. I had challenged the sole ownership of my brother on that basis and sought that the property be divided equally among three siblings __ me, my brother and our sister,” Jagannath Narayan Deo told this paper over phone from Chennai. The case is sub judice. With the assets still entangled in a legal tussle and an injunction in place, the charges of misappropriation by former manager Ananga Manjari and her brother Sanjay Patra, who was Gopinath Gajapati’s personal assistant, remain unclear. Going by the suicide notes of Ananga Manjari and her brother, sources said they were committed to Gopinath Gajapati for over two decades. Their notes point at conspiracies to defame them in a systematic manner. When the controversy over Parala Maharaja’s failing health hogged the limelight, agitations and demonstrations were staged in Paralakhemundi. A shop owned by Santosh Patra, the second brother of Ananga Manjari, who also committed suicide, was damaged too.
The family was humiliated in public as local politicians, across partylines, took part. Local MLA K Suriya Rao, who headed the Maharaja Surakhya C o m m i t t e e t h a t launched agitation, is facing allegations of abetment of suicide after Amulya Patra, another brother of Ananga Manjari, filed a case with local police. Rao, however, says it was his duty as the local legislator to safeguard the interest of Parala Maharaja and provide him better care which he did. Talking to a private TV channel, he refuted that he was part of any plan to defame the palace manager and her siblings. As Gopinath Gajapati remains under treatment at a private hospital in Chennai, Jagannath Narayan Deo says his brother’s health was clearly neglected and he holds the former manager responsible. “I had met my brother in September last year when his son ended his life. He was weak then. When I visited him in the hospital a few days ago, his condition was pathetic. He did not have basic nutrition and lost over 20 kg weight,” he said.
He, however, refuses to comment on the property misappropriation issue saying Ananga Manjari and her brotherwere just paid employees. “When I heard from locals about the issue, I also wrote to the Gajapati Collector seeking a probe,” he added.