Jain sadhvi in police custody

The Amravati Police on Thursday obtained one-day police custody of Raju Talwar and Jain sadhvi Riddhishree who was in the news for her disappearance.

Suman Talwar, the mother of Raju, has been remanded to four-day magisterial custody.

The police have already registered offences against Sadhvi, her beau Raju and his mother Suman for conspiracy and playing with religious sentiments of people.

The 21-year-old Jain sadhvi, who cooked up the story in connivance with her beau Raju, was arrested by the Amravati Police at Sangli. Raju had been working as her helper (Sevak) since 2004.

An educated Talwar, whose mother Suman, a senior Congress leader of Sangli in western Maharashtra, was in love with the Jain sadhvi for the last couple of years.  As both of them wanted to marry, they cooked up the story of a miracle. The mysterious disappearance of the sadhvi had become a subject of concern for the Jain community in the region.  A similar situation was witnessed among the people in the community when a young sadhvi, Induprabha, ran away with a milkman at Indore in Madhya Pradesh about two decades back.

It all began on October 15 when the sadhvi’s disappearance came to light. It was claimed that she had turned herself into ashes. Thousands of devotees reached the spot. However, the episode raised several doubts and it was suspected that she ran away. It was also suspected that the drama of  a “miracle” was staged to save the prestige of the religion as well as to keep faith intact in the minds of the devotees.

Riddhishri, alias Samata Khabia, the Jain sadhvi, who had gone missing from her room in Amravati early on Sunday morning, was found alive in Sangli on Tuesday evening. A squad of Amravati Police found her at Mangal Mata Apartment in the Vishram Bagh area.

Samata, originally a resident of Rajasthan, was accompanying senior Jain sadhvis Chetnashri and Vijayashri to Amravati. The Jain sadhvi admitted that she was in love with Raju and wanted to lead a normal life. However, fearing that their decision would defame the community, they created a scenario, depicting that the sadhvi had burned herself. For that, Samata and Raju both brought ashes and bones from the local crematorium and spread it on the bed sheet.

“I love him and wanted to live with him as his wife and that’s why I ran away from the ashram,” she defended and claimed that she had not committed any crime. However, the leaders of the Jain community there pointed out that if she really wanted to lead a normal life, she could have got the permission to do so. “She never expressed her wishes to marry. She also became a Jain sadhvi on her own and by taking permission from her parents,” they further pointed out.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Amravati police commissioner Jagannath said, “We are still interrogating them to get more details.”

First Published: Oct 19, 2006 21:25 IST