Jaya Prada: Kin finger

Chennai, April 17: Jaya Prada’s sister-in-law has approached the poll panel to get back her nine-year-old son, who she complains is being made to campaign for the Samajwadi Party.

Usha, who is married to Samajwadi MP Jaya Prada’s brother Raj Babu, has alleged in her petition that her estranged husband abducted her son from her custody in September 2008. She then filed a case in Madras High Court to get the child back, Usha’s petition says.

“All these days, I had no information about the whereabouts of my son Samrat Rajmuthu. But recently I was shocked to see his photograph in some newspapers campaigning along with Jaya Prada in Andhra Pradesh. By forcing him to campaign for elections, his health would be spoilt and a nine-year-old should not be subjected to such cruelty,” the mother’s complaint says.

Usha has urged the Election Commission to restrain her son from being used to campaign and also to return him to her care.

“Jaya Prada claims she is in politics to serve the public. How can someone who forcefully separates a small boy from his mother serve the public?” she asked reporters.

Usha’s lawyer admitted restoring the child to his mother was beyond the poll panel’s purview, but said: “We wanted to highlight the plight of a mother separated from her son.”

Jaya Prada said she would respond if asked to by the poll panel. “If the Election Commission asks for an explanation, we will furnish a proper reply. But the charge of cruelty is not true.”

An aide asked: “In the picture does the boy look depressed because of the cruelty? He seems to be smiling.”

This is not the first time Jaya Prada and Raj Babu are in a spot. The two had declared themselves insolvent in 2006 after failing to repay a loan of Rs 7.29 lakh to financier C. Gopalakrishnan. This was revealed in February last year when the Chennai corporation sought to attach two of their cinema halls for non-payment of property tax worth Rs 20 lakh. The two then filed a petition seeking to be declared solvent and cleared their dues, after which their insolvency was cancelled.

Jaya Prada was liable to lose her Lok Sabha seat in 2006 because, under the Constitution, a citizen who is insolvent cannot be a member of Parliament or the legislature. But she did not disclose her insolvent status to the Lok Sabha and the Election Commission and remained an MP.

This month, the actress was at the centre of a row when Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh threatened to resign — but quickly retreated — over colleague Azam Khan’s campaign against Jaya Prada’s candidature from Rampur.