BHOPAL: Jiteshwari Devi, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Panna, who was arrested on September 8 on charges of hurting religious sentiments, accused mining minister Bijendra Pratap Singh of conspiring against her, which she said, led to her arrest on trumped-up charges.
Jiteshwari Devi also rebutted the many allegations that had been levelled against her by the police and priests at the Jugal Kishore temple on September 8 when she was arrested. She was accused of being drunk, misbehaving with the priests and assaulting police officers who tried to restrain her.
Instead, Jiteshwari Devi said she was the one who was abused and assaulted because she was a widow.
Jiteshwari Devi said her son, Chhtrasaal, 17 was invited to the aarti as per the tradition on Janamashthmi. But when he reached there, he was stopped by the police and not allowed to enter the temple.
She said it was at this point that she came into the picture after her son phoned her. “I reached there and the temple priest took me inside. I started offering Chanwar which, as per tradition my son had to do. Some people, who were not devotees, started abusing me and tried to stop me, using obscene language. I fell down and they started shouting that I was drunk.”
“They later dragged me outside the temple. The whole incident was engineered by minister Brijendra Pratap Singh and that’s why he was absent. Every year, district officers, MLA and MP come to attend aarti but that day, everybody was absent as it was pre-planned,” said Jiteshwari.”
Jiteshwari Devi, who has been a critic of the Ken-Betwa project, said she had been targetted because of her opposition to the project that impacts the Panna tiger reserve and her opposition to illegal mining.
Bijendra Pratap Singh, who is the local MLA, denied the charges. “I was busy with some other work so didn’t attend the aarti but her accusations are baseless and totally fake. Ken Betwa Link project is not a new one and it is a matter of the central government so how I could be involved in it,” he said.
