MP and wife arrested over maid’s death

Agencies/New DelhiA lawmaker and his wife were arrested yesterday over the death of a maid and the torture of a teenaged servant at the couple’s New Delhi home, police said. Dhananjay Singh, an MP from the regional Bahujan Samaj Party, and his wife Jagriti Singh were held for questioning for allegedly torturing their domestic help, who died of severe injuries late Monday. Reports of impoverished domestic servants being abused by their wealthy employers frequently appear in Indian newspapers. Singh, who represents Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested for destruction of evidence and violating the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. His wife has been booked for murder, attempt to murder and violating Juvenile Justice Act. She beat and tortured her maid Rakhi, 35, and Rampal, 17, for days, police said.The police received a call from the MP’s house in New Delhi on Monday night, informing them about Rakhi’s death. The information was given by Dhananjay himself, but he tried to mislead the police, police said.Police arrested Singh yesterday evening, several hours after questioning him and his wife.Earlier in the morning, Singh denied the charges levelled against his wife. “I got a call last night that the maid had fallen and died. I rushed back home and informed the police. Now they are doing their job,” he said, adding the maid was working at his residence for around a year.“The incident happened on Sunday evening but Dhananjay informed police a day after,” said a police officer.According to the officer, Rampal told them that Rakhi had died. He said Jagriti used to beat and torture him and Rakhi.Rampal also said the beatings were going on for several months and Rakhi finally succumbed to her injuries on Monday night.Police said the postmortem would be done today.According to the police, on Sunday night Jagriti beat Rakhi and Rampal over a petty issue with an iron rod and sticks. She also used iron press and horns of a dead animal while beating them. Both of them received grievous injuries on their body.Jagriti, who has a Bachelor in Dental Surgery degree and is a senior resident doctor at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, administered first aid at home instead of taking them to hospital.Rakhi, of West Bengal, was employed nine months ago through a placement agency while Rampal came from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi city.A maid working in another house said that Jagriti used to torture her maid and servants. A few months back, a maid had left work because Jagriti was torturing her.Police said Jagriti was staying with her son and servants in the flat allotted in the name of Singh. There was marital discord between the couple for the past seven months and Singh lives in another flat.Jagriti is the second wife of Singh, whose first wife committed suicide in 2007, police said.According to NDTV network, servants at the MP’s house were allegedly often beaten with sticks and kept locked inside. Singh has been accused in two murder cases. The case comes just months after a teenage maid was rescued from an upscale Delhi home by police and social rights campaigners, who said she had been slashed with knives and mauled by dogs.