New Delhi:
A Delhi court today fixed February 22 for hearing arguments on framing of charges in a case in which BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti Singh were charge-sheeted in connection with murder of their domestic help.
The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma in the case in which Jagriti was charge-sheeted for various offences under IPC, including sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 344 (wrongfully confining for 10 or more days), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 201 (destruction of evidence).
Dhananjay, a sitting BSP MP from Jaunpur constituency of Uttar Pradesh, was charge-sheeted for various offences under IPC, including alleged destruction the evidence and abetment of the offence of murder and attempt to murder.
A magisterial court had on February 4 taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police and had transferred the matter to a sessions court in Delhi.
Dhananjay and Jagriti, a dental surgeon at a government hospital in Delhi, are lodged in jail under judicial custody.
The police, in its chargesheet, has alleged Jagriti used to give "merciless beatings" to her three domestic helps and "compelled" them to work by holding them captive.
It has been alleged the domestic help was not allowed to go out of the house.
The police have also claimed that Dhananjay and his wife might have "tampered" with the data of the CCTV cameras installed in the house.
The couple was arrested on November 5, last year in connection with the death of their 35-year-old domestic help Rakhi Bhadra, a resident of West Bengal.
Rakhi's body, with injury marks on her legs, chest and arms, was recovered from Dhananjay's South Avenue residence on the evening of November 4, last year.
Earlier, the police had chargesheeted Dhananjay in a separate case for allegedly repeatedly raping a 42-year-old railway employee for nearly four years.