Police trace another witness in maid murder

The Delhi Police, on Wednesday, traced a domestic help who they said was witness to the murder of 35-year-old Rakhi Bhadra and had been hidden at a relative’s place of MP Dhananjay Singh since Sunday.

The Delhi Police, on Wednesday, traced a domestic help who they said was witness to the murder of 35-year-old Rakhi Bhadra and had been hidden at a relative’s place of MP Dhananjay Singh since Sunday.

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Meena, 48, a resident of 24 Parganas in West Bengal, according to police officers, is the eldest of the Singhs’ domestic helps and had been employed at their residence in South Avenue since early 2012.

After being recovered, she was shifted to RML Hospital where she was put under treatment for burns inflicted on her body — including her private parts — allegedly by the MP’s wife Jagriti Singh.

“According the 17-year-old domestic help, who is an eyewitness, Meena had been sent to the MP’s relative’s house on the pretext of helping them out for Diwali preparations on the morning of November 4,” said a senior police officer.

According to the minor domestic help, Meena was sent away by Jagriti on her husband’s suggestion. This was an apparent ploy to get a potential witness out of the way, the police said.

According to his statement before the police, Jagriti had offered the minor boy some medicines at 11:45 am. “She had never done so before,” the statement reads.

“She then assured me that I shouldn’t bother Rakhi and told me to go and work. She said she would get Rakhi admitted in a hospital for treatment,” the statement says.

Police sources said that one Shehzan Ali, Rakhi’s teenaged son, had reached the Capital and was under their protection. He is currently waiting for his other family members to arrive before they can give the police a go-ahead for Rakhi’s post-mortem examination scheduled on Thursday.

The police said they had recovered various articles — the hard drive of the Singh household’s digital video recorder that contains footage of the assault on Rakhi, Meena and the minor domestic help, a wooden stick with a sharp end, two electric irons and a deer head-trophy with antlers.

“The device is being checked by experts who are currently in the process of accessing its password-protected data,” said the officer. A police team had reached the RML hospital late on Wednesday evening to record Meena’s statement.