Claimant to Pandya riches gets 3-mth jail

CHENNAI: In a sensational turn of events in the battle over the Pandya dynasty’s riches, the Madras high court on Tuesday awarded three-month jail term to a claimant for contempt of court. The court also imposed a fine of 50,000 each on the claimant, N Jagannathan, and his counsel V Chockalingam. A division bench, comprising Justice P Jyothimani and Justice M Duraiswamy, however, suspended the jail term alone for a period of one week after it was informed that Jagannathan was a “sick person”, but said that the fine must be paid within a week.Jagannathan claims to possess a will executed in his favour by the then zamindar of Sivagiri estate, Varaguna Rama Pandiya Chinnathambiar, on May 16, 1992. Sivagiri estate is a remnant of the ancient Pandya empire.