Woman-turned-man scuppers brother's property inheritance

The scion of one of India's wealthiest families has undergone sex-change surgery, reportedly to stake a claim to a prime property in India's financial capital, Mumbai.

Aparna Mafatlal, 48, recently became a man, Ajay Mafatlal, reportedly to grab an equal share of the 10,000 sq ft family apartment in Altamount Road that was going to her brother, Atulya Mafatlal, under Hindu inheritance laws that discriminate against women. Their father, Yogendra Mafatlal, died in January. Before his death, he divided textile companies belonging to one of India's richest business houses among his four daughters and son Atulya.

But Atulya, as the only son, was the sole inheritor of the sprawling prized apartment - that was, until his sister's sex change threw a spanner in his works. Ajay has medical papers to prove he is now a man, which means he is entitled to half of his father's property.

News of the surgery came close on the heels of a damaging court case filed by the patriarch's widow, Madhuri, against Atulya and his socialite wife, Sheetal, for ill-treating her and her daughters.

But the high-profile sex-change operation, performed by leading surgeon Kalpesh Gajiwala, has overshadowed the legal case and become the talk of corporate India.

Ajay's sex life has always been grist for Mumbai's gossip mills. There was his arranged marriage, when he was a woman, in 1979, quick divorce and subsequent live-in relationship with a celebrity woman business partner.