Week after rescue of 13-yr-old from their locked flat, doc couple arrested

Seven days after the rescue of a 13-year-old domestic help from a locked Dwarka flat, her employers, doctors Sanjay and Sumita Verma, were arrested outside a West Delhi mall on Wednesday.

Police said the couple had gone to Bangkok on a vacation after locking up the girl in their second-floor flat in Hahnemann Apartments in Dwarka Sector 6.

The girl had been starving for three days when she was rescued on March 29, police said. She told police and her counsellors that the couple used to monitor her activities through CCTV cameras.

Additional Commissioner of Police (South West) A K Ojha said: "We arrested Sanjay and Sumita Verma from outside Lifestyle mall in Rajouri Garden between 2.30 pm and 3 pm today. They were on their way to their brother's house in Rajouri Garden."

Police said the couple claimed they had returned to Delhi on the afternoon of March 30, a day after the girl was rescued from their

B-2/6 flat. This claim is being verified, police said.

Technical surveillance is said to have led to the arrests. As many as eleven police teams had fanned out across the city to locate the couple.

The Vermas were produced in the Dwarka district court which sent them to police custody for two days.

Late Wednesday night, police searched the couple's flat but found no CCTV cameras — the girl had earlier told police and counsellors that there were cameras in the flat through which her activities were monitored.

Sandeep Verma, elder brother of Sanjay, told Newsline: "After the news broke that my brother and sister-in-law are in the country, the police conducted raids and apprehended them. They had a choice — either abscond and live in hell or live with grace. They chose the latter. They never tried to run away. They landed in Delhi and were shocked by the news, they did not know how to go about the matter. We were following protocol. And appealing for anticipatory bail is a citizen's right."

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