Campaign on to malign Gayatri Devi: says step son

Jaipur, Aug 1 (UNI) The Jaipur royal family saga took another turn today with Gayatri Devi's step son Prithvi Singh claiming that a campaign is onto malign the erstwhile queen's name to grab the Rs 1,000 crore property.

In an advertisement in a reputed Hindi daily here, Prithvi Singh refuting the charges of Princess Priyanandana Rangsit, the estranged wife of Gayatri Devi's late son Jagat Singh, said Priyanandana could not present any evidence to prove that Jagat Singh's will is ''forged'' which disinherits his children Devraj Singh and Lalitya Kumari from their father's property.

Last week at a press conference here, Priyanandana had made public the 'forged will' of late Maharaja Jagat Singh, which not only disinherits his children but also passes on all his property rights to his mother Gayatri Devi.

Priyanandana had said ''Gayatri Devi is 86 and very old. She is under the influence of her step son(Prithvi Singh) and does not want her luxurious life disrupted at any cost. Not even at the expense of her own grand children, who are being deprived of their legal rights to inherit their father's property.'' Prithvi Singh said Gayatri Devi had no idea that Jagat had written a will. Jagat had written a will before departing for London on June 23,1996 when his mother was abroad. The will was kept along with his confidential papers.

Gayatri Devi got to know of the will in Mar-Apr 2006 through Jagat Singh's trusted aide who was one of the signatories of the will.

On getting to know of the will, Gayatri had herself phoned her grandchildren and told them of the contents of will and sent them a copy of the will too.

At the core of the royal feud is the property Jai Mahal Palace Hotel Pvt Ltd, whose shares were realloted without the knowledge of the Rangsit family.

Late Jagat Singh used to hold 99 percent of the company's shares as the property was gifted to him by his father late Maharaja Man Singh. But later Jagat Singh's estate was diluted to seven percent while Maharaj Prithvi Singh and his family now own 93 per cent of the company.

Devraj and Lalitya have filed a suit at the Company Law Board (CLB) seeking remedy against them on accounts of their misdeeds, which includes illegal allotment of shares in the Jai Mahal Palace property.

Prithvi Singh asked how could Jagat Singh's children file a parallel suit at CLB when the dispute over Jagat Singh's property is subjudice. He said the reallotment of company shares is also not possible until the dispute is totally resolved.

He also said Jagat Singh could never meet his children as Priyanandana was totally against him. She never even let them accept any gift from their father. The children could not meet Jagat in his last days, which led to his untimely demise in 1997.

Priyanandana had married Jagat Singh in 1978 and separated after seven years. They divorced in 1985. Priyanandana took her two children to Bangkok, who grew up there. Priya is an accomplished equestrian and has links with the royal family of Thailand.

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