MP ‘wanted divorce as wife was cruel to help’

The prosecution also claimed that the couple had not paid their helps for the work and had allegedly confined them illegally,thus treating them as “bonded labourers”.

The couple,who were arrested on Tuesday in connection with death of their domestic help Rakhi,were produced in court of Metropolitan Magistrate Dheeraj Mittal along with their 17-year-old domestic help,who had also been tortured allegedly by the MP and his wife.

Dhananjay,however,tried to shift the blame on his wife. “In May,I had filed for divorce against my wife… one of the grounds was that my wife was treating the helps cruelly,” Singh submitted in court. His lawyer Hariharan claimed that Jagriti had employed three helps directly from a placement agency without consulting her husband.

According to Hariharan,Dhananjay was in his constituency in Jaunpur,Uttar Pradesh,when the incident took place. Once he was informed about the murder,he took a flight back to Delhi. He then reported the death to police and handed over to the Deputy Commissioner of Police all footage from the CCTV cameras installed in his house. “The entire story unfolded only after he (Dhananjay) went to the police station,” Hariharan told the court.

Hariharan also said Dhananjay did not live at the South Avenue bungalow,the scene of the alleged murder. “He has been living at a guest accommodation for one and half years,” the lawyer said.

However,the 17-year-old told the judge that Dhananjay often visited the South Avenue bungalow.

Meanwhile,the prosecution maintained that Dhananjay had attempted to destroy CCTV clips and delayed reporting the death.

“There was ample time to tamper with the video feed,” Mukul Kumar,the prosecution lawyer told the judge,arguing that they needed the couple’s custody to recover footage and murder weapons.

Kumar said police had been unable to locate the residence of the three helps since the placement agencies had supplied them with “fake addresses”.

Remanding the couple in police custody for five days,Magistrate Mittal said,“The offences are of a serious nature… ..In my considered opinion,for the recovery of case property and aid of the investigation,five days police custody remand is desirable. Accordingly both the accused are remanded to police custody till November 11,2013.”