Maid murder: Police looking for iron allegedly used to torture maids

New Delhi: Delhi Police are searching for the iron which was used to torture the domestic helps at the house of BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti Singh and are trying to access clippings of a video recorder recovered from the couple’s South Avenue house. According to a police source close to the probe, investigators have so far found sticks, rods, an artificial horn of a deer and other instruments which were used to torture the domestic helps in the house but the iron is yet to be found. [caption id=“attachment_1217651” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Police are yet to access the footages stored in a video recorder recovered from the house which they suspect may contain videos of Jagriti beating up or torturing the domestic helps in her house. Investigators are also tracking the human trafficking trail through which 35-year-old Rakhi and another maid Meena were brought to Delhi from West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district around a year ago. While Rakhi allegedly died of the torture inflicted on her by Jagriti, Meena had also been severely injured and is at present undergoing treatment at R M L Hospital in New Delhi, said police. Last night, a magistrate recorded Meena’s statement under section 164 CrPC at the hospital. She has apparently corroborated the minor domestic help’s statement about inhuman treatment being meted out to them by Jagriti. As per police, Dhananjay Singh had contacted one Dev Kumar who had got these two women employed at his house as domestic maid. Police are looking for Kumar whose location is being traced in Kolkata and a team has been sent to nab him. Investigators have has also questioned Singh about Dev and he apparently told them that Dev was earlier employed with a south Delhi-based placement agency. Although, the agency was closed, Dev continued to work independently. The postmortem of the deceased domestic help Rakhi is yet to be performed. A panel of three doctors has been constituted which will conduct the autopsy at Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Hospital tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rakhi’s son, identified as Shahjan Ali, has also reached the national capital after he was informed about the death of his mother. Ali was a child when his father died in Kolkata and he is Rakhi’s only child. Dhananjay and his wife Jagriti were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder of Rakhi and “merciless” torture of another 17-year-old minor domestic help with stick and rods. The body of Rakhi, with several injury marks on her legs, chest and arms, was recovered from Singh’s residence at South Avenue here on Monday evening. The juvenile help, who is the complainant in the case, had told police that Jagriti had been regularly beating the three domestic helps. The domestic helps were allegedly tortured and beaten up by wooden sticks, iron rods, iron press and even metallic deer horns by the accused. PTI