Paris: French billionaire Nicolas Puech, who is a descendent of the fashion giant Thierry Hermes, has made headlines by claiming that half of his wealth, which he had promised to leave to his former gardener last year, has suddenly disappeared.

The 81-year-old had also made headlines in 2023 after he revealed his plan to adopt his former gardener and handyman, intending to give him a significant portion of his wealth, but Puech has now stated in court that up to 6 million of his shares, valued at approximately $13 billion (Rs 10,000 crore), have vanished. Also, reports have stated that the fifth-generation heir to the fashion company has blamed his financial manager, who worked with him for over two decades, for the loss of shares.

A Swiss court, however, has rejected his suit on grounds of the allegations lacking clarity and also being insufficiently backed up, explaining that Puech had no evidence for his claim of a ‘gigantic fraud’ by his former wealth manager.

Puech, who is single and has no children, is one of the heirs to the French luxury design house. Several reports suggest that feuds with family members might have influenced Puech’s unconventional choice of heir – his 51-year-old former gardener from Morocco, who is married to a Spanish woman and has two children.

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New Delhi (PTI): In a major decision, the Union government on Wednesday decided to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census exercise in a "transparent" manner.

Announcing the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the purview of the Centre but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys.

Alleging that the states ruled by opposition parties have done caste surveys for political reasons, the minister said it is Modi government's resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the forthcoming pan-India census exercise.

The census exercise was to commence in April 2020 but got delayed due to the Covid pandemic.