New Delhi: A doctor couple, arrested for allegedly leaving their 13-year-old maid locked-up and starving in their flat while vacationing in Bangkok, was on Monday remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a Delhi court. Dr Sanjay Verma and his medico wife Sumita Verma both were sent to judicial custody along with an alleged middleman, for his alleged role in bringing the girl here from her village in Jharkhand and her employment as maid through a placement agency.
The trio was sent to judicial custody after the Delhi police said it does not need them for further interrogation. Metropolitan Magistrate Sudhir Kumar Sirohi said, "The accused, Sanjay Verma, Sumita Verma and Mahadev are sent to judicial custody till April 22." The accused were produced before the court after expiry of their police custody.
The police last week had sought the custody of Dr Sanjay Verma and Mahadev on the ground that they wanted to probe the angle of "human trafficking", as a result of which the victim-girl ended up in the capital.
The court earlier had rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the couple, saying they had acted in an "inhuman" manner.
The court had also rejected the couple's attempt to settle the case by offering Rs 75,000 to the minor girl and her family, saying the offence was non-compoundable. The police, which produced the couple and the alleged middleman after completion of their three-day remand with it, had told the court that it is still looking for the fourth accused to be arrested in the case "to complete the chain" through which the girl was brought to Delhi from Jharkhand.
The police also said Mahadev handed over the girl to the placement agency after bringing her from her native place.
They said they wanted to locate the owner of the placement agency who provided the maid to the couple.
According to the police, the couple had locked up the girl in their flat at Dwarka in South West Delhi on March 25 before leaving the country for Bangkok. The girl, hailing from Jharkhand, was rescued four days later on March 29 after neighbours saw her crying in the flat's balcony.
The couple had returned to the country on March 30, a day after the incident came to light, but had gone into hiding and was arrested on a tip-off on April 4, from near Lifestyle Mall in West Delhi's Rajouri Garden.
The police had lodged the FIR against them under the 23/26 Juvenile Justice Act, Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (punishment for wrongful Confinement), 370 (buying or disposing of any person as slave), 374 (unlawful compulsory labour) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC.
The girl, after her rescue, was taken to DDU Hospital where doctors said she was on verge of starvation. The couple had left for Bangkok locking her up and leaving food and water that lasted only for two days, the police had alleged.
Comments
0 comment