The two daughters of a former Indian maharaja have won a 21-year court battle to inherit his vast estates, including an ancient fort, an aerodrome, jewels and vintage cars worth more than €3 billion.
A judge in the north Indian city of Chandigarh ruled last week that a document purporting to be the will of Maharaja Sir Harinder Singh Brar of Faridkot, a small principality in India’s Punjab province, was a fake, and awarded his vast properties and fabled wealth to Amrit and Deepinder, his two surviving daughters.
Delivering his judgment on the case filed in 1992 by Amrit, the maharaja’s eldest daughter, chief judicial magistrate Rajnish Sharma declared that the Faridkot maharaja’s will had been forged to award his fortune to a trust managed by his lawyers and retainers.
The two sisters – now in their 80s – stand to inherit a legacy that includes a 350-year-old fort in Faridkot and adjoining palaces and forests; a mansion surrounded by acres of land in the heart of New Delhi and similarly grand estates spread across four other provinces.
Riches
There is also a stable of 18 vintage cars; a 200-acre aerodrome in Faridkot; and €128 million worth of gold jewellery studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
The lawsuit offered all the intrigue of a medieval royal tale. Brar was crowned maharaja of Faridkot at the age of three upon his father’s death in 1918.
In 1981 Brar’s only son died in a road accident, after which the former maharaja went into deep depression from which he never recovered.
It was during this period, his daughters argued, that Brar’s aides schemed to deprive the family of their fortune by setting up a trust and naming all the maharaja’s servants, officials and lawyers as trustees.
Monthly allowances
Following the maharaja's death in 1989, a will leaving all his wealth to the trust became public. The two younger princesses, Deepinder Kaur and Maheepinder Kaur – who died in 2001 – were given meagre monthly allowances of €15 and €13 respectively.
According to the will, Brar’s wife, mother and oldest daughter Amrit – the presumed heir – were disinherited.
The trust told the court that Amrit Kaur was spurned by her father for marrying against his wishes. She disputed this assertion and testified that she was constantly by her fathers’ side during his last years and that he never made a will.
The trust is considering challenging the magistrate’s order in a higher court.
