In early November, a special court in Delhi initiated proceedings against former Congress MP Jitendra Singh for criminal breach of trust, directing him to appear before it on November 25. The directions came after the son of another former Congress MP from Rajasthan, Prabha Thakur, alleged that Singh had borrowed an M F Husain painting, estimated at over Rs 1 crore, in 2014, stating he wished to show it to his wife, who is a Husain admirer, and possibly purchase it.
However, the painting was allegedly never returned.
Thakur’s son Rohit Singh Mahiyaria filed a complaint in 2019, and a trial court dismissed the plea earlier this year. He then filed a revision petition, based on which the court set aside the trial court order. On his part, Jitendra Singh said that after 2014, Thakur repeatedly sought political favours that were declined, and hence the current complaint.
He also moved the Delhi High Court against the summons. Representing Singh, noted lawyer and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted there was no proof of the painting being handed over to his client and that the allegations against him are vague. The High Court permitted Singh to appear before the trial court virtually and posted the matter for April next year.
Here are the two leaders facing off in the courts:
Jitendra Singh
The 54-year-old Jitendra Singh is an AICC general secretary and is in charge of Assam, apart from being a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member. He contested and won the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Alwar. Although he was a first-time MP back in 2011, he was inducted into the UPA-2 Cabinet as Minister of State for Home Affairs in 2011.
Barely 15 months later, in October 2012, when the PM Manmohan Singh carried out a reshuffle, Singh was made the MoS for Defence as well as the MoS (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports. He contested the 2014 and 2019 elections from Alwar but lost by 2.83 lakh and 3.29 lakh votes, respectively.
Singh is among the few Congress leaders from Rajasthan seen as having the party high command’s ear. In May 2022, Singh, then 50, became the youngest member of the eight-member Political Affairs Group constituted by then Congress president Sonia Gandhi to advise her on major political issues.
He also wields considerable influence in the Alwar-Bharatpur region, having a say in ticket distribution in both Assembly and Lok Sabha seats. Leader of the Opposition and Alwar Rural MLA Tika Ram Jully is also seen as being close to Singh. He was also instrumental in the Congress picking Sanjna Jatav from the Bharatpur seat in last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Jitendra Singh’s father, Pratap Singh, was a scion of the erstwhile ruling family of Alwar, while his mother, Mahendra Kumari, was the daughter of Bundi’s last king, Maharaja Bahadur Singh, and was also elected as a BJP MP from Alwar in 1991.
While Singh usually keeps a low profile, he occasionally grabs the headlines. In November 2021, he was in the spotlight after a court in Bundi issued an arrest warrant against him and two others in a case of alleged forgery, which was later stayed. He was accused of allegedly forging his uncle’s signature to transfer the properties to himself.
In April 2022, he was at a grand “Raj Tilak” ceremony of Vanshvardhan Singh as the 26th head of the erstwhile Bundi royal family. It was Jitendra Singh who placed the “paag (traditional headgear)” of his uncle, the late Ranjit Singh, on Vanshvardhan’s head, amid other ceremonies and rituals.
Prabha Thakur
Thakur, 80, is among the tallest women politicians to have emerged from Rajasthan. She was a Lok Sabha MP from Ajmer from 1998 to 1999, and a former two-time Rajya Sabha MP. She has previously also served as the national president of the All India Mahila Congress.
Born in Ajmer in 1949, she completed her MA and PhD in Hindi Literature and went on to become an eminent Hindi author. Her collections of Hindi poems are on themes of national integrity and goodwill. Some of her notable works include Bauraya Man (1982), Aakhar Aakhar (1990), and Chetna ke Swar (1986).
Thakur has also been vocal on various issues, especially those concerning women, and was also involved in movies in various capacities like script-writing, production, music, and playback singing. Some of her works include Mahalakshmi Maa (Hindi), Gora Hat Ja (about the Indian freedom struggle), and Binani Hove to Isi, a Rajasthani movie.
She has also been associated with various Buddhist organisations, including the Vishwa Bauddha Sanskritik Sangathan and the Maha Bodhi Society of India.
This August, it is learnt, she donated 200 gm of gold to the Congress as a contribution to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against alleged irregularities in voter lists.