A member of the erstwhile royal family of Panna in Madhya Pradesh has been arrested for rioting, house trespassing, and threatening her mother-in-law over a two-decade-old property dispute, said police.
Police superintendent Dharmraj Meena said Jiteshwari Devi was arrested on the complaint of Rajmata Dilhar Kumari on Thursday. In her complaint, Kumari has accused Devi and three others of barging into her palace without permission, vandalising the property, misbehaving with her, and threatening to kill her by showing pistols on June 19, added Meena. Meena said they have probed the matter and found the accusation to be true. He added four other accused are absconding.
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The accused have been booked under the Indian Penal Code’s Sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (obscene language), 506 (criminal intimidation), 458 (house-trespass or housebreaking), and the Arms Act.
The family has been involved in a property dispute since 2005. Kumari has insisted half of her property belongs to her daughter, Krishna Raja. Her son Raghvendra Singh has been claiming his father, late Maharaja Manvendra Singh, left a will saying the latter’s daughter will get that part of the property. In 2015, they made the will public, but Kumari has called it a forged document.
{{/usCountry}}The family has been involved in a property dispute since 2005. Kumari has insisted half of her property belongs to her daughter, Krishna Raja. Her son Raghvendra Singh has been claiming his father, late Maharaja Manvendra Singh, left a will saying the latter’s daughter will get that part of the property. In 2015, they made the will public, but Kumari has called it a forged document.
{{/usCountry}}Devi’s lawyer, Brajbhan Yadav, called the arrest politically motivated and said the case was filed against his client to weaken the protest against Ken-Betwa Link Project. “...Devi is opposing the project and (the case has been filed to) tarnish the image of Maharaj Raghvendra Singh and his family.”
Kumari is supporting the project for interlinking Ken and Betwa rivers. Devi has been opposing the project, which she says will spoil the diamond mines and Panna Tiger Reserve, said Nadeem Khan, a local activist.
Kumari refused to comment on this.