MISS INDIA has been forced to issue an apology and return her tiara after she was accused of being a Mrs within hours of the competition in Bombay.

Laxmi Pandit, a model, had to forget Miss World dreams after her triumph collapsed almost before the tears from her winning speech had dried.

In an affidavit yesterday Ms Pandit insisted that she had not been legally married but did admit she had “misrepresented” her marital status.Claims that she is older than the permitted age limit of 24 were also being investigated.

The cause of her disgrace is a claim she made that she was married when renting a Bombay apartment. The scandal also threatens the career of Siddharth Misra, her boyfriend, a male model with whom she allegedly shares a home. He has withdrawn from the forthcoming Gladrags Mr India contest.

Beauty pageants, dismissed as old-fashioned and sexist in many parts of the world, have flourished in India. A series of Miss World triumphs by Indian beauties in the late 1990s were greeted with nationalist hysteria at home.

Ms Pandit, who belongs to a family of ayurvedic tooth powder tycoons from Mysore, admitted that she had “tarnished her image”. She said: “I realise I am expected to maintain the decorum of being a role model for the youth of India. In view of my incorrect statement . . . I surrender the Miss India World 2004 title with great personal regret.”

Ms Pandit’s older sister Kal-pana was stripped of her Miss India-Universe crown in 1989 when it was discovered that she was a US passport holder.

The standard expected of beauty queens has been set by former winners such as Aishwarya Rai, now a Bollywood star. She ascribes her success to traditional family values. When she was tipped for a James Bond film last year, the Indian Press were briefed that she could become the first Bond girl to be a virgin.

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