Bahujan Samaj Party MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the death of their domestic help at his official residence in South Avenue here.
While the MP has been charged with destruction of evidence and obstructing investigation, his wife has been charged with murder.
Mr Singh is a Lok Sabha member from Jaunpur in U.P. while Jagriti works as a senior resident dentist at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
The police, who are awaiting the post-mortem report, suspect that constant physical torture for days and lack of proper medical attention to the injuries inflicted on the Bangladeshi domestic help, Rakhi, led to her death.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that Jagriti would allegedly kick the victim, burn her with a hot iron and hit her with sharp objects, including antelope horns. Other domestic helps also alleged that the same treatment was meted out to them.
The victim’s family is settled in Kolkata from where she was brought to the Capital through a South Delhi-based placement agency. She was recruited by Jagriti about 10 months ago.
According to the police, Mr. Singh himself reported the death of the maid around 9 p.m. on Monday. Subsequently, a police team went to his 175 South Avenue residence where it found the body of Rakhi. She had sustained serious injuries, including burns, all over her body. Another domestic help, 17-year-old Ramphal, also bore injury marks. The body of the victim was taken to RML Hospital around midnight where the doctors declared her dead.
