Rich, brash, with rich friends and Papa to clear up his mess, Jagat's typical of the brat brigade
Andaleeb Sehgal: Just another 'good friend'
Jagat Singh: Wherever he goes, controversy follows
Sumaya: Andy's sister, and close companion of Jagat
Murad Ali: Son of filmmaker Muzaffar Ali
Raninder Singh: Jagat's cousin and Punjab CM's son
A reputation for arrogance, violence and rule-breaking has dogged Jagat Singh since his schooldays at the elite Doon School.
| | | | VIPs helped close the Natasha case hurriedly. | | | | |
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Recalls a former schoolmate: "Jagat was a brat who broke rules all the time, often leaving his friends—who hero-worshipped him—to carry the can." After a series of warnings, Jagat Singh was expelled from Doon School for "general bad behaviour". That was no deterrent to him adding St Stephen's College, Delhi, to his resume later.
Jagat's circle of friends includes, apart from the much-in-the-news Andaleeb Sehgal, other young men from privileged backgrounds who studied at elite public schools. Among them are Murad Ali, son of filmmaker Muzaffar Ali; R.P.N. Singh, UP Congress MLA from Padrauna whose father C.P.N. Singh was a minister of state in the Rajiv Gandhi government; Jagat's first cousin Raninder Singh, son of Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh; and Vikas Dhar, son of former Rajiv Gandhi confidant Vijay Dhar and grandson of prominent Kashmir politician D.P. Dhar. Another close friend at Doon School, Afzal Khan, son of UP Congress politician Mohammad Aslam Khan, was killed in a shooting incident at Saharanpur during his father's election campaign in 1989. The former schoolmate points out: "All of Jagat's friends are scions of rich and influential families who never had to worry about looking for a job—they just went into their father's businesses, be it politics, trading or filmmaking."
According to sources in Delhi social circles, Jagat likes his drink, is hot-headed and impulsive, and then does not stop to think about the consequences. They recall that at the height of his estrangement from his half-Jordanian wife Natasha, a close friend of hers, Coca Cola executive Vinay Kapoor, was dragged out of his car at a roadblock when he was returning from a party late at night, and severely beaten up, allegedly by goons hired by Jagat. The Coca Cola executive left for his posting in London in a wheelchair.
Later, when Jagat was locked in a legal battle with Natasha over custody of their two small sons, he engaged top lawyer R.K. Anand (now a Congress MP), and succeeded in getting the court to grant him custody, even though it is the mother who almost always gets custody of children under the age of seven.
A short while later, Natasha was dead, and speculation still surrounds the circumstances of her death. Her body was found lying below a terrace at the Hyatt Hotel, from where it was alleged she had jumped. Even as her friends urged the police to investigate her death, as they feared she may in fact have been pushed, the police case treating it as a suspicious death was hurriedly dropped and the subject closed as a suicide. This is said to have been done at the intervention of highly-placed government officials, including Brajesh Mishra.
A few weeks later, Jagat's sister Ritu, described by those who knew her as "emotionally very fragile", committed suicide. It was Ritu who had introduced Jagat to her close friend Natasha. Jagat Singh has for some years now been in a close relationship with his friend Andy Sehgal's sister Sumaya, a former model who was earlier married to fashion photographer Ronnie Kaula. In 2003, Jagat was involved in a public brawl at a New Year party in Manali where Sumaya was also present. The Punjab police security gunman accompanying Jagat fired in the air to break up the brawl.
The controversy and rumour surrounding Jagat Singh's personal life seems to have had little impact on the predominantly Jat voters of Lachhmangarh, a family stronghold, from where he was elected to the Rajasthan assembly in 2003.