This is a very strange story. _____________________________________________________ Princess leaves Rs 25 million to servants Friday November 26 2004 00:00 IST IANS SHIMLA: An erstwhile princess changes her will, bequeathing her assets to her domestic helps, has a heart attack the same night and dies two days later leaving her brother, the former prince of the kingdom, screaming murder. It could well be the plot of an Agatha Christie whodunit set in the English countryside, but it is not. It is just real life being played out in the Himachal Pradesh town of Bilaspur in northern India where Raj Rajeshwari, 66, passed away on Nov 11, leaving all her moveable assets of Rs. 25 million ($550,000) to her man servant and his father. And the erstwhile prince of Bilaspur, Kunwar Kriti Chand, and his wife Kunwarani Karuna are furious and are planning legal action to make sure that no 'commoner' gets hold of their ancestral wealth. "The grieving ceremony has ended on Wednesday and now we will contest the will in court and claim our ancestral property," said Kunwarani Karuna. "They attempted to kill her by an overdose of alprex (sleeping pills) three years ago and have indulged in foul play again. Even the autopsy report and chemical report can be manipulated," Karuna told IANS. The couple alleges that the father-son duo of Babloo and Ram Bilas, who have been catapulted from being domestic helps and peanut sellers to the palace, "drugged" the sick princess into transferring her assets to them. But Babloo and Ram Bilas, who have incurred the wrath of the royalty and moved overnight from rags to riches, say they are being targeted unfairly. "Why would we do anything foul like put pressure on her especially when she was so good to us," the two have been reported as saying. In this drama with all the elements of a classic thriller, the district administration is also playing a minor part attempting to deal with all the necessary details to put things in their proper perspective. "According to her preliminary autopsy report, Raj Rajeshwari died of a heart attack. Her viscera report should be ready in a couple of days," said Bilaspur district magistrate Subashish Panda. "Raj Rajeshwari left cash, gems and jewellery, a car, Persian carpets and rare artefacts to Babloo Gupta and Ram Bilas," Panda told IANS over the phone. He added that the other half of the property, the immoveable assets estimated at another Rs. 25 million, had been handed over to a trust headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for an old age home. The princess reportedly changed her will two days before her death and signed it in the presence of magistrate Dhanvir Thakur. That same night she complained of chest pain and was admitted to a hospital at the nearby town of Sundernagar, 150 km from here, where she died two days later. Sanjay Dhiman, the doctor at the private clinic in Sundernagar where she was taken, said Rajeshwari had been brought to his hospital a day earlier as well. She declined to be admitted but had to be hospitalised the next day. She later suffered a heart attack and died, according to Dhiman _________________________________________________ Servants bequeathed more than peanuts By Baldev Chauhan BBC correspondent in Simla A family's shock at the death of a north Indian princess was more than matched by consternation that she had left half her fortune to a pair of peanut sellers. Raj Rajeshwari, 66, princess of Bilaspur in India's Himachal Pradesh state, reportedly changed her will shortly before she died. She left about 25m rupees ($556,000) to a peanut-selling father and son who also worked as her domestic helpers. The princess' brother is furious, accusing the beneficiaries of drugging her to change the will. He has vowed to retrieve the property through the courts. Old people's home Subashish Panda, a district magistrate in Bilaspur, told the BBC: "According to Raj Rajeshwari's will, cash, gems and jewellery, a car, Persian carpets and rare artefacts have been left to Babloo Gupta and Ram Bilas. The grieving ceremony has just ended... and now we will contest in court and claim our ancestral property Karuna, princess' sister-in-law "The remaining half of the property has been handed over to a trust of the Himachal Pradesh government to open an old people's home." Mr Panda said the new will had been signed on her birthday in the presence of a magistrate, Dhanvir Thakur. On the same night, 9 November, she complained of chest pains and was admitted to hospital in the nearby town of Sundernagar, about 150km (95 miles) from state capital, Simla. She died two days later. The princess' brother, Kriti Chand and his wife, Karuna, claim the servants "drugged" the princess into transferring assets into their name. "The grieving ceremony has just ended today (Wednesday) and now we will contest in court and claim our ancestral property," Ms Karuna said. She told the BBC the servants had been guilty of another previous act of "foul play". But the domestic helpers say they are being accused simply because the princess bequeathed them property. "Why would we do anything foul and put pressure on her, especially when she was so good to us?" they asked. Mr Panda said that though the preliminary autopsy showed the princess had died of a heart attack, a forensic report would be completed in a few days _________________________________________________ Princess leaves assets to domestic help November 24, 2004 14:53 IST The unwed princess of the erstwhile princely state of Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Raj Rajeshwari, has bequeathed her movable assets worth Rs 2.5 crore to her domestic help -- a father and son duo -- and her immovable property to a trust headed by the chief minister. The movable assets of the 66-year-old princess, who died on November 11, include cash, gems and jewellery, car, Persian carpets and rare artefacts -- all of which have been left to Babloo Gupta and his father Ram Bilas. On November 9, the princess celebrated her birthday along with a friend from Kullu. Later she signed the will in the presence of tehsildar Dhanvir Thakur. She complained of chest pain the same night and was admitted to a clinic in Sundernagar, where she died two days later. The family of the princess' brother, who has been left out of the will, alleges that she was "drugged" and made to sign the will in the name of her helper. Kanwar Chandra, the brother, has petitioned the authorities and the property under dispute has been sealed. ____________________________________________________ Mystery surrounds princess's death BILASPUR, (Himachal Pradesh): The sudden death of a princess in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh is making headlines after her family accused her driver, the beneficiary of her will, of poisoning her. Princess Rajeshwari of Bilaspur died just four days after her 67th birthday on November 7. The princess fell ill suddenly on November 9, writing her will just hours before her death. In her will, she has left all her movable assets worth crores to her old servant Ramvilas Sharma and immovable assets to the Himachal Pradesh government. Her family is crying foul. They say that she did not die a natural death, but her servants who are the named beneficiaries in her will say they are being falsely accused. "I met her 25 days back and she was fine. She said she was fine and later we heard she had died. We don't know how she died. It is possible that whoever got her to write that will murdered her," said Kanwar Kirti Chand, princess Rajeshwari's brother. "They are lying and trying to falsely implicate us. In fact, the princess told us that her sister-in-law had been poisoning her slowly for the last six months," said Sukhwant Gupta, the princess's driver and will beneficiary. The Princess' family says that her driver Sukhwant's mother had been mixing Alprex tablets in the juice they gave to her resulting in her death. But the police says she died of a heart attack. "We have the postmortem report but this is an interim report not the final one. The reason for her death is a heart attack and till now there is no foul play," said M Chandrashekhar, SP, Bilaspur. Despite the clean chit given by the police, her family says the circumstances surrounding her death are suspicious and need to be investigated thoroughly ___________________________________________________ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? All your favorites on one personal page � Try My Yahoo! http://my.yahoo.com

At 08:40  28/11/04 -0800, akshay chavan wrote: >This is a very strange story. >_____________________________________________________ >Princess leaves Rs 25 million to servants >Friday November 26 2004 00:00 IST >IANS > > > According to another report, Rani Sudarshana Devi (widow of the late Raja), who lives in the UK, has come out in support of the peanut-sellers. All doesn't appear to be well in the Bilaspur Royal Family. Hopefully the truth will come out. Cheers, Henry

Obviously she has been exploited and duped by her servants. Mandeep ----- Original Message ----- From: Henry Soszynski <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 2:15 PM Subject: Re: [INDIA-ROYALTY] "The Princess and the Pea" nut sellers > At 08:40 28/11/04 -0800, akshay chavan wrote: > >This is a very strange story. > >_____________________________________________________ > >Princess leaves Rs 25 million to servants > >Friday November 26 2004 00:00 IST > >IANS > > > > > > > According to another report, Rani Sudarshana Devi (widow of the late Raja), > who > lives in the UK, has come out in support of the peanut-sellers. All doesn't > appear to be well in the Bilaspur Royal Family. Hopefully the truth will come > out. > Cheers, > Henry > > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx >