BJP MLA held in maid suicide case

Later,Asharani was produced before a magistrate who remanded her in three-day police custody.

Asharanis husband,Ashok Veer Vikram Singh alias Bhaiyya Raja,is already in jail in connection with the murder of his grandniece Vasundhara Bundela,a student of fashion designing in December 2009. While investigating Bundelas murder,the police had learnt that there was more to his maid Tijji Bais death.

The 37-year-old maid had set herself ablaze on the roof of the couples bungalow on Kolar Road in May 2007. The police had nearly closed the investigation in the maids death but while probing Bundelas murder they learnt that Bhaiyya Raja used to exploit her which drove her to commit suicide.

Asharani had defended her husband,saying he was being harassed,before the police learnt that she also had a role to play in the maids suicide. Soon she disappeared. In the current session of the Assembly,she had managed to ask a question without being present in the House.

On Thursday,she tried to surrender in a local court,which asked the police to produce the case diary before it on Friday. By the time police came to know of it,the MLA again disappeared to emerge in the Assembly on Friday.

SSP Adarsh Katiar told The Indian Express the legislator was arrested when she was trying to run away from a barricade. The Congress,however,called the entire exercise stage-managed. How can a wanted accused keep appearing and disappearing at will, the party asked,alleging that the legislator was backed by the ruling party.