Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP, Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti Singh were arrested in connection with the murder of their domestic help, who died after she was allegedly beaten up by Jagriti.
29-year-old Jagriti Singh, who works as a senior dental surgeon at Ram Manohar lohia Hospital, was arrested on charges of murder, attempt to murder, Juvenile Justice Act and torturing her maid to death.
40-year-old Dhananjay Singh, who represents Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on charges of abetment to crime, destruction of evidence and employing a 17-year-old boy as a domestic help.
They are both in police custody and investigators are ascertaining why the body was kept in the house for over 12 hours and why did Dhananjay not inform the police immediately after he came to know about the incident.
Preliminary investigation also revealed that there was an attempt to wash the blood stains from the backyard of Jagriti’s ground floor apartment, and that the hard disk of the CCTV had been removed. Jagriti Singh has been accused of beating and torturing 35-year-old Rakhi Bhadra for the last one year and beating another minor servant, Rampal, with sticks and rods.
Initially, the accused tried to mislead the investigators by claiming that Rakhi died after falling from the terrace. However, after the shocking revelation by Rampal alias Chhotu, that Jagriti used to beat and torture them on a regular basis, her lie was exposed. Following that, Jagriti was arrested. later in the evening, Delhi Police arrested Dhananjay Singh as well.
Police said the deceased, Rakhi, was living in the servant quarters of Jagriti Singh’s house for the last one year. Rakhi who was from West Bengal was employed through a placement agency while Rampal had come from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi.
“The incident came to light on Sunday evening around 8.05 pm when BSP MP Dhananjay Singh called the police post in-charge of South Avenue, Virendra Kumar and asked him to come to his flat, No-126, in South Avenue. Singh informed Kumar that their domestic help had fallen from the terrace and died and her body was lying at his apartment No-175,” police said.
Singh and his wife have been going through divorce proceedings for the past seven months and they live in separate flats.After reaching the spot, the investigators found the body and took it to RMlH where doctors declared Rakhi brought dead on arrival.
Investigators have found several injury marks on the arms, face, head, legs and chest of the deceased. When police questioned the MP’s wife, she told them that Rakhi fell from the terrace on November 2 while she was cleaning it and she had injured herself badly. However, instead of taking her to hospital Jagriti gave her first aid at home.
When Jagriti was questioned about the burn marks on the bodies of both the servants, she told the police that she had caught the couple in a compromising position which is why she lost her cool and beat them up.
However, Jagriti’s bluff was exposed after Rampal accused her of beating and torturing Rakhi on a regular basis. Rampal said that Rakhi was beaten up mercilessly a day before Diwali with sticks and iron rods and Jagriti made the maid stand outside for hours without food and water.
“The beatings had been going on for several months and Rakhi finally succumbed to her injuries on Monday morning. She used to beat them over petty issues with iron rods and sticks. She also used an iron press and animal horns to beat them,” a police officer said, adding that both of them received grievous injuries on their bodies. Jagriti is the second wife of Dhananjay, whose first wife committed suicide years ago.
Meanwhile, Dhananjay Singh, told the police that he was in Jaunpur when he got a call from Jagriti three days ago saying that the maid was injured after she fell from the terrace. On Monday morning around 8.15 am, he again got a call saying the maid had died. “On hearing this I rushed home from my constituency,” Singh told the police.