For Maya ‘slur,’ Rita Joshi jailed,her house torched

Police said she was arrested on National Highway 24 on her way to Delhi.” A case has been filed under Sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity between groups) and 509 (insulting a woman’s modesty) and Sections 3 (1) and 10 of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Officials said the offences registered against her were non-bailable.

The arrest came after BSP activists ransacked Joshi’s Lucknow house — near the CM’s office — and set ablaze four vehicles parked there.

In New Delhi,Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the UP government’s action was an act of complete desperation and that of personal vendetta against Joshi.

Another Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said Mayawati was resorting to strong arm tactics to cow the Congress into submission.

Earlier,at a meeting in Moradabad,Joshi slammed the CM’s decision to send the DGP to visit Dalits who were victims of crime,including rape. In that context,she is alleged to have made a ‘derogatory statement’ against Mayawati.

Joshi had allegedly suggested that Mayawati should be raped so she could better understand the plight of rape victims in her state.

On Thursday,Joshi said she was only trying to “expose a chief minister who has no sympathy for women.”

“I regret what I said in a fit of anger. If it is being misconstrued,if it’s being misinterpreted,it is being taken out of context,then I regret it,” she said.

“I am myself a woman and I should not have spoken these words … I really apologise,” she said.

She reiterated her statement that it is “shameful” that the DGP travels by helicoptor and gives Rs 25000 as compensation to victims.

(With PTI inputs)