Ex-BJP MLA’s daughter, who accused her family of torturing her, returns home

Surendranath Singh’s daughter released a video online alleging torture by her family for a decade, including administration of sleep-inducing injections.

A former BJP MLA’s daughter, who’d run away alleging torture by family, returned home on Tuesday. Her return was unconditional and she didn’t make any accusations against the family, said the police.

“We found her at a village near Raver of Maharashtra. A police team escorted her to her house and handed her over to the family. There was no settlement between the two sides,” said Umesh Tiwari, T.T. Nagar City Superintendent of Police. “She had run away on her own accord and returned the same way.”

On October 16, former MLA from Bhopal Central Surendranath Singh had filed a complaint with the police claiming his “mentally ill” daughter, Bharti Singh, had gone missing.

Days later, Ms. Singh released a video online alleging torture by her family for a decade, including administration of sleep-inducing injections. According to her lawyer, Ankit Saxena, who petitioned the High Court seeking protection for her, she was in a relationship with a man of another faith for five-six years, but her family was forcing her to marry the son of a political leader.

On Monday, Mr. Singh told The Hindu that his daughter was a victim of “love jihad”, in which Congress leaders had a hand.

After receiving his daughter home, he said, “Someone had performed

tantric kriya (black magic) on her. Now that she has returned, we want all this to go away.”

“When she was upset, no one was by her side. He helped her then. So, she went away with him,” Mr. Singh said, referring to the man his daughter was in a relationship with.

Mr. Singh said he’d told his daughter she had a right to decide her fate. “The moment she returned, I told her we’ll do as you say. Padho likho apna kaam karo (Study well and do your work)”

In the video released from an undisclosed location on Saturday, Ms. Singh had said: “My mental health is totally fine. My family members are falsely blaming me as they are in a position to forge documents, but I can’t do that. Please help me. I just don’t want to return home.”

Mr. Singh had said his daughter had been suffering from depression since 2016. “She is being treated by a reputed doctor and we have the documents relating to it,” he said.