Kanshi Ram

New Delhi, Dec. 2: The alleged ?illegal custody? of Kanshi Ram came back to haunt Mayavati with the Bahujan Samaj Party founder?s mother and brother filing a criminal petition before the Supreme Court seeking to visit the ailing leader and take him under their care.

?The petitioners, the 95-year-old mother and the brother of Kanshi Ram, founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party, are constrained to approach this court being aggrieved by the order of Delhi High Court declining to constitute a commission of doctors and medical experts to ascertain the medical condition of Kanshi Ram,? the petition contended.

The petition charged Mayavati with administering sedatives to Kanshi Ram so that he is mentally and medically weak and cannot form an ?independent opinion?.

The petitioners ? Kanshi Ram?s mother Bishan Kaur and brother Dalbara Singh ? had met a ?heavily drugged and sedated? Kanshi Ram on June 4 at New Delhi?s Batra Hospital where the BSP founder had been admitted in September 2003 with a heart ailment. This came in the wake of an appeal filed with Delhi High Court on May 22 seeking permission to meet the BSP founder, today?s appeal claimed.

However, the petitioners were assaulted by Mayavati?s ?henchmen? when they objected to the ?drugging and sedating?, the appeal alleged. An FIR was registered at New Delhi?s Tughlak Road police station, it said.

The petition alleged that on July 1 Kanshi Ram was ?forcefully? taken away from the hospital by the BSP president with the active ?collusion and connivance? of the doctors attending on him.

The petitioners said Mayavati ?managed? a discharge certificate from the hospital though the BSP founder had 100 per cent blockage in one of the arteries and 90 per cent blockage in two others and was recommended to undergo a bypass surgery.