Twist in Sivagiri property case
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The Sivagiri Zameen property dispute case took an interesting turn on Tuesday with a counsel for one of the parties claiming that the British government had put huge amount of funds belonging to Pandia before 1947 in the trust account of Varagunarama Pandia, son of Senthattikalai Pandia Chinna Thambiar, the last Zamindar of Sivagiri, in a Swiss bank.
When the petitions relating to the Sivagiri Zameen property came up for hearing, a division bench of Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraisamy examined N. Jaganathan, who claimed to be the legal heir of Varagunarama Pandia Chinna Thambiar, and his counsel V. Chockalingam.
The bench directed the Chennai collector and special commissioner of land administration to verify the genuineness of the properties mentioned in the list submitted by N. Jaganathan in 2003.
To clear the doubts, advocate Chockalingam removed his robe and volunteered to stand in the witness box and answer the queries of the bench.
Chockalingam said he was a former Madras University professor and enrolled as an advocate in 2003. As an academician, he knew several institutions such as Kalakshetra.
The advocate said he came across Giuseppe Leopoldo Cassina, a Swiss national, when he came here to admit his daughter in Kalakshetra in 2002. At that time he was not aware that Cassina was a banker.
In 2003, Cassina told him that he was connected to the Credit Suisse Bank. He also told him that the British government had put a huge amount of funds belonging to Pandia before 1947 in the trust account of Varagunarama Pandia and its secret number cannot be revealed but assured to help him bring back the money.
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