IANS

Lucknow, Jul 17: Only the blackened structure of Uttar Pradesh Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house remains. Its interiors were completely gutted following an arson attack Wednesday night, allegedly by ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) activists to avenge Joshi's reported offensive remark against Chief Minister Mayawati.

The bungalow, located on Lucknow's prime and high-security Sarojini Naidu Marg, looked like a scene from the war zone.

It belonged to former state minister Kranti Kumar, a close lieutenant of Joshi's father the late Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, and had rare photographs of prominent national leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru displayed on some the walls. Everything, including the fixtures and fitting, has been reduced to ashes.

Surprisingly, an LPG cylinder in the kitchen remained unaffected by all the fire and heat. Four vehicles - two Ambassador cars, a Bolero, and a Maruti Van - also stood gutted by the porch.

While two of the servants employed there were packed off along with their spouses and a child in a police jeep to the Hazratganj police station where they spent the night, Joshi's main domestic help Munni managed to save her skin by hiding in a rear toilet.

"Since the initial concentration of the attackers was on the larger front rooms, which they set ablaze, by the time they entered the rear rooms, there was a thick cloud of smoke inside so they chose to go outside, giving me an opportunity to quietly slip into the bathroom where I stayed for more than two hours until they departed," Munni told IANS Thursday.

According to her, "It all began around 12 last night, when a huge bunch of masked men stormed into the house, raising 'Mayawati zindabad' and 'Rita Bahuguna murdabad' slogans. Armed with petrol cans, iron rods and sticks, they went about smashing everything before dousing it with petrol and lighting a matchstick to send it into flames."

Munni said: "The violence continued for nearly two hours and several khakhi-clad policemen remained mute spectators."

Incidentally, Joshi's house is barely 50 metres from the chief minister's office and about 100 metres from the residence of BSP national general secretary Satish Misra.

While the two other servants returned with their families to the house Thursday afternoon, they preferred not to answer any queries.

"Please leave us alone," pleaded Raj Kumar Verma. However, the other servant, Raj Kumar Chaudhary, who spent the night at the police station along with his wife and a 5-year-old son, said: "The cops took us to the police station but did not subject us to any kind of torture. The men were kept in one room while the women and child in another, but eventually they let us off this afternoon without any fuss."