Businessman Ajay Mafatlal, first major sex change case, passes away

Mumbai: Businessman Ajay Mafatlal, who was Aparna till a sex change operation, of the Yogindra Mafatlal Group, passed away after a month-long illness at a hospital. He was 60. Ajay died at the Breach Candy Hospital yesterday afternoon due to cardio-respiratory failure, according to the hospital and family sources. He was first admitted to the Cumballa Hill Hospital on July 30 with urinary tract and lung infections, but soon he developed sepsis, following which he was shifted to the Breach Candy hospital. He was one of the most famous and earliest sex change cases in the country. In November 2003, he underwent a surgery at the age of 46. Aparna was married to family friend Sudeep Parikh, in November 1979, who was into the business of producing yarns.

After living together for one-and-half years, they mutually agreed to get separated, and in 1984, got formally divorced. Ajay's funeral was held at the Banganga cremation grounds last evening in the presence of family members and close friends. His mother Madhuri Mafatlal, whom he was very close to, was cremated at the same place two years back. Ajay always maintained that he wanted to live like man as he never felt like a woman. He and his mother Madhuri were embroiled in a bitter property battle with his younger brother Atulya and the latter's estranged wife Sheetal.

Though Ajay had denied that property dispute with Atulya had anything to with his sex change, rumour mills never died. Before Aparna became Ajay, Atulya was the only son to have a claim on the late Yogindra Mafatlal's trust, as all the four sisters, including Aparna, had been married off. After the death of the patriarch Yogindra Mafatlal over a decade ago, an intense family feud started between Ajay and Atulya over the 10,000-sqft family mansion on Altamount Road here, with Atulya and Sheetal on one side and Madhuri and Ajay on the other side.

To put an end to the dispute, their mother allowed partition of the Altamount Road mansion. However, the feud between Ajay and Atulya intensified after Madhuri, a few months before her death in July 2013, declared Ajay as here only son. Following this, Ajay too disowned Atulya as his brother.