Lucknow/New Delhi, July 16 - Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was Thursday jailed for 14 days on charges of insulting Chief Minister Mayawati while parliament was paralysed over a vicious mob attack that left Joshi's Lucknow house in shambles.

Joshi was sent to judicial custody by a court in Moradabad town after being charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Mayawati.

Her arrest earlier in Ghaziabad followed a violent attack on her residence in the Uttar Pradesh capital by men screaming slogans in support of Mayawati. After breaking and damaging what they could, the mob set ablaze the house as well as vehicles parked in the compound.

The vandalism sparked uproar in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, leading to their adjournment, while Congress and other political leaders accused Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of thuggery.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi convened a meeting of senior MPs of her party from Uttar Pradesh to discuss the issue.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari called the attack on Joshi's house 'nothing short of jungle law ... and terrorism' while general secretary Digvijay Singh described it as 'state-sponsored vandalism, state-sponsored crime'.

'We are aware that when this was happening, all top officers were with the chief minister. All this has happened at the behest of the chief minister,' Digvijay Singh said in New Delhi. 'The police were told this is going to happen. The media was told to reach (Joshi's) house.'

Chief Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi admitted that Joshi had used inappropriate words during a speech targeting Mayawati, but insisted that 'the reaction (in Lucknow) is completely disproportionate. What kind of vandalism, hooliganism (is this)?'

According to Joshi's aides, a group of men with a part of their faces covered with handkerchiefs and armed with iron rods, sticks and petrol stormed her house after midnight Wednesday, screaming slogans against her and hailing Mayawati.

The men went about breaking everything in the house before pouring petrol in all directions and setting the complex on fire.

A maid at her house, Munni, 50, told reporters that the fire raged for nearly two hours.