Sunita Khakha was rescued from suspended Jharkhand BJP leader Seema Patra's home. She had wounds and burn marks on her body, as per police.
Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Seema Patra was planning to take her tribal help Sunita Khakha, rescued in an "indescribable condition" from her residence, to an ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi and dump her there, according to the original complaint filed with Jharkhand Police.
Sunita was rescued by police in a raid at Patra's residence. She had injury and burn marks all over body, according to the police, and has several teeth missing, which can be seen in videos of her shared by media. She was rescued on the complaint of Vivek Anand Baskey, a government official. He was tipped off by Ayushman, Patra's son and his friend.
The complaint noted that Sunita, 29, was "not being able to walk or go to toilet on her own".
Baskey also claimed that the mother had tried to have her son committed to a mental hospital. He told PTI, "Aayushman told me there were plans to abandon Sunita in an ashram in Varanasi or throw her at an isolated place wrapped in a blanket."
Soon after Ayushman Patra sent gory pictures of the tortured domestic help, his mother had him taken by force by local policemen to the Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) in a hand-cuffed state, to be admitted for mental disorder, as per the FIR. When Baskey reached the hospital on being informed of the development, Ayushman accused Patra of forcing Sunita to drink her own urine, and requested his friend to save the maid before she suffered more damage.
The Patra family’s driver Ranjeet Kumar Singh later told Baskey that "whatever Ayushman Bhaiyya told is true".
Apparently, CIP doctors who were not fully convinced that Ayushman did not need immediate treatment, asked for him to be brought to the hospital next week. His mother, however, rushed him to another mental institution and had him admitted to a paid ward.
After this, Baskey decided it was time to go the police to try and get the maid rescued as well as rescue his friend Ayushman, who he felt was in perfectly normal mental health.
An earlier attempt to rescue Sunita, when the driver had lent his phone to her to contact a relative, had to be aborted as Patra had come to know of the attempt and had flown into a rage, Baskey said.
He added, "I fear for both Aayushman and his father Maheshwar Patra who was not allowed to even come to the balcony, as per driver Ranjeet's information... I have in a petition requested the Investigating Officer of the case to make the daughter of Seema Patra co-accused, as she had taken Sunita to Delhi, where too, she underwent inhuman torture."
A tale of inhuman torture has unfolded ever since Sunita was rescued by the police on the night of August 22. She was found in an "indescribable condition" after police raided the residence, Argora Police Station in-charge Vinod Kumar had said.
He told PTI, "She had severe wounds and burn marks all over her body, as examined by a woman officer. She looked highly malnourished. She is in a state of trauma. Sunita claimed that she was made to lick her urine...Many of her teeth are missing. She was allegedly hit with iron rods."
The victim's statement was recorded before a magistrate earlier.
A video of Sunita narrating her ordeal had gone viral on social media, following which clamour for Patra’s arrest had grown louder across the state and elsewhere. She was subsequently suspended by the party.
Patra, following her arrest, had claimed that she was innocent and "being framed" in the case. She was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody on Wednesday.
Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais, tribal organisations, the National Commission for Women (NCW), and the political class has taken cognizance of Sunita's case and have condemned her treatment.
(With PTI inputs)