During questioning by a Division Bench comprising Justices P Jyothimani and M Duraiswamy, Chockalingam, counsel for N Jegannathan, who claims to be a legal heir of Varaguna Rama Pandiyan Chinna Thambiar and the rightful inheritor of the Sivagiri estate, claimed that Swiss national and a Fund Manager in a Switzerland bank, Giuseppe Leipoldo Cassina had told him that he had come to know about the deposit made by the British government in the Swiss bank before 1947.
"He (Cassina) told me a huge fund is there in the account and its secret number can not be revealed", Chockalingam said, adding, Cassina had also assured that he would try to find out the value of the assets and bring it back to the country.
In reply to a question by Justice Jyothimani who wanted to know what was the quid pro quo for bringing back the wealth, Chockalingam said Cassina, who had married an Indian and was killed in a road accident in Switzerland recently, had agreed for five per cent of the amount in the Swiss bank as his fee after the assets were brought back.
When grilled by the court and told that failure to surrender the original Letter of Administration (LOA), which had been cancelled, to the court would amount to 'contempt of court,' Chockalingam said following the court's directive to return the LOA "I made several attempts to get it back by sending e-mails to Cassina".
He said that in July 2007, he received another e-mail in which the Swiss national had said that the Swiss Bank was holding the LOA. MORE