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‘Fasaya gaya hai’: Suspended BJP leader, accused of torturing domestic help
Jharkhand leader Seema Patra has been accused of assaulting and abusing her domestic help for years.
Seema Patra, the suspended BJP leader who was arrested on Wednesday amid accusations of torturing her house help, has said the allegations against her are false. Huge outrage has been triggered as details emerge of the alleged assault with the opposition attacking the BJP. Soon after the arrest, the Jharkhand leader - in a video tweeted by the news agency ANI - can be heard shouting: “Han, humko fasaya gaya hai. (Yes, I have been implicated).”
“These are false allegations, politically motivated claims…” she further told reporters.
Patra, who is in her 60s, has been accused of abusing and torturing her domestic help for years.
Former CM Babulal Marandi on Wednesday met the domestic help - who was reported to have been rescued by the police last week - at a hospital. “She is a poor lady, and used to work at her house. The way she was beaten by her was not right. It's good that she (Seema Patra) has been arrested,” he told ANI. The BJP on Monday had suspended Patra, who was the member of the national executive of the party's Mahila Marcha (women's wing).
Meanwhile, the BJP has come under intense attack from the opposition. The Congress has accused top party leaders of remaining “silent” on the matter.
“The kind of inhumanity that BJP leader Seema Patra has done to a tribal disabled girl for eight years... it is going to put humanity to shame. The silence of the BJP top leadership in this entire matter is raising many questions,” a tweet by the party in Hindi read.
"Does BJP not consider tribals as human beings? Treat them as second-class citizens? The leaders of the self-proclaimed 'sanskari' party, run by 'Nagpur', who have crossed all limits of inhumanity, will have to answer. In Chhattisgarh too, they exploited the tribals for a decade and a half," Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel tweeted.
(With inputs from ANI)
