“Around 11 pm last night, a police vehicle arrived and they asked us to open the main gate. After some hesitation, we opened the gate. The vehicle entered the bungalow. They took away everyone except Munni,” said Rita Devi, wife of Ram Bodh.

Raj Kumar Verma said: “We could not understand why they were taking us away. They took us to Hazratganj police station. The men were kept in a hall along with my son Karan and the two women were kept in a separate room. We asked the police why they were keeping us there and they said they had brought us to the police station for our safety.”

Munni said she was sitting in her room, watching television when she heard a commotion. “l looked out and saw policemen taking them away.”

Brij Lal, however, denied the claim that the police picked up the staff before the attack. “The police team reached the spot only after receiving information about the violence and rescued them from the house,” he said.

But UPCC chief spokesperson Subodh Srivastava said: “The police picked these people before the arson began and detained them for over 12 hours. It shows that the police knew about the incident in advance.”

Recalling the attack, Munni said: “Around 11.45 pm, I heard people shouting outside the gate.” On spotting a crowd entering the premises, she ran into a dressing room, locked herself in and switched off the light.

“They were shouting and banging on doors, breaking things. They were banging the bathroom door, flashing a torch through in the gap between the floor and door to see if anyone was there. I held my breath, moved next to a cupboard and sat there for the next two hours.”

... contd.