(From top) Ranjana, who claims she is Udit Narayan’s ‘real’ wife, displays family pictures at the Patna hotel where the singer and Deepa were putting up. (PTI)

Patna, April 21: A woman claiming to be Udit Narayan’s “real wife” laid siege to his hotel room this morning, forcing the playback singer and wife Deepa to lock themselves in till police arrived to escort them to the airport.

Ranjana Jha breezed past Maurya Hotel’s security guards, a crowd of “supporters” and TV cameras in tow, and knocked on the door of room number 401, where the couple had checked in last night after attending the marriage of Narayan’s niece.

“Look the man has no courage to come out and speak to me,” Ranjana cried to the cameras as she kept knocking, ignoring hotel staff’s requests to leave.

She claimed she had married Narayan in 1984 when he was a small-time singer in Patna, and alleged Deepa was, therefore, not legally wedded to him.

“He kept me in the dark about his second marriage for years and now I have come to seek my rightful place,” she told reporters, holding up photographs of Narayan and herself.

As he was led out by the police, Narayan refused to answer queries. Followed to the airport by the media, he lost his cool and gave them a mouthful as his guards scuffled with camera crews, damaging three lenses.

Later in the evening, a news agency quoted him as saying in Mumbai: “I don’t know this woman and I have never met her before. These are attempts to malign me.”

“Everyone knows I am his wife,” Deepa said. “It (the allegation) is all rubbish and an attempt to gain cheap publicity.”

Although Narayan and Deepa are reportedly married several years ago and have a son, Ranjana claimed she was given to believe they were merely living together.

She alleged that after Narayan shifted to Mumbai, he got acquainted with Deepa, a fellow singer of Nepali origin and soon began living with her.

“Whenever I went to Mumbai, Deepa threatened Narayan with dire consequences and forced me to cut my visit short. As I didn’t want any harm to come to my husband, I stayed back at Patna. But I continued to enjoy the status of his wife. He used to send me money.”

But when she learnt a few months ago that Narayan had married Deepa, she said she found it impossible to take it lying down.

Ranjana alleged she had conceived thrice but Deepa had got her to take medicines to abort the child.

Ranjana, who now stays with her parents at Balua-Nirmali village in Bihar’s Supaul district, claimed her parents-in-law, Harekrishna Jha and Bhuvneshwari Devi, “disapproved” of their son’s second marriage but were helpless as they were dependent on him.

Narayan said: “I had received threatening calls four-five years ago but I didn’t pay any attention to them.”

He said he would lodge a report with the police after consulting his lawyers in Mumbai.

Ranjana said she would seek an appointment with chief minister Nitish Kumar, and if nothing came of it, would move court. For now, she has refrained from lodging a case, preferring to wait for a patch-up.