BJP leader booked for torturing domestic worker suspended from party

The victim, a tribal woman, has been rescued last week

The Ranchi Police have booked Seema Patra, now suspended from the BJP, for torturing, beating up and brutalising her domestic worker, a 29-year-old tribal woman, officials said, adding that the victim had been rescued last week and was now being treated at the RIMS hospital in Ranchi.

Ms. Patra, the wife of retired IAS officer Maheshwar Patra, was allegedly torturing the domestic worker Sunita and this was not acceptable to her son Ayushman Patra, who then approached a friend of his from college — now a section officer in the Jharkhand government.

"One Mr. Baski, a section officer in the State government, was the complainant in the case. He was informed by his friend Ayushman and got the victim rescued," Ranchi Superintendent of Police (City) Anshuman Kumar told The Hindu.

The State unit of the BJP on Tuesday suspended Ms. Patra, till then a member of the mahila morcha's national working committee, after a video of the victim making a statement went viral.

In the video, the woman, lying on a hospital bed, alleged that Ms. Patra beat her with iron rods and hot pans and brutalised her over the last six years. She was missing a few teeth and had been severely injured. In the video, she could be seen saying that she was alive only because of Ayushman.

At one point, she also says that she wants to study further, when Mr. Baski assures her that they would help her with it and that she was safe now.

The Ranchi Police are yet to make an arrest in the case, with Mr. Kumar saying, "We are waiting to receive the official statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 of the Cr.PC before the magistrate and then we will take required legal action."