Lucknow, July 16 - Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was Thursday sent to Moradabad jail on 14 days' judicial custody on a charge of insulting Chief Minister Mayawati, after members of the state's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) set fire to Joshi's home here late Wednesday night. The Congress described the incident as 'state sponsored vandalism'.

Around the time her house was under attack, Joshi was arrested in Ghaziabad en route to New Delhi. She was charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Mayawati.

Early Thursday morning, Joshi was taken to the home of the chief judicial magistrate in Moradabad. The magistrate sent her to judicial custody.

However, Joshi denied having said anything to offend Mayawati or Dalits.

'It was at a meeting in Moradabad that I had simply sought to draw the people's attention to the fact that Mayawati's dole of Rs.25,000 to every Dalit rape victim was quite ironical as the state police chief was spending lakhs on the helicopter ride that he undertakes to hand over that paltry amount to the victim,' Joshi told reporters.

'My intention was to remind Mayawati that being a woman she should realise that a paltry monetary compensation cannot make up for what a woman loses on account of rape,' she added.

Joshi said she had already apologised for the remarks.

'As soon as I found that my statement had been twisted I promptly made it a point to offer my apologies. I knew that it would be misconstrued but what has followed amounts to state-sponsored terrorism and cannot be condoned under any circumstance,' she said.

Talking about the attack on Joshi's house, her 50-year-old maid Munni said: 'Close to midnight a group of masked men stormed into the house, raising slogans against Joshi and for Mayawati.