BJP MLA Asharani Singh and her husband Ashok Veer Vikram Singh alias Bhaiyya Raja were sentenced to 10 years in jail on Thursday in connection with the suicide of their domestic help,a former sarpanch,in May 2007. While Bhaiyya Raja is already serving a life term for sexually exploiting and murdering his grandniece,an arrest warrant has been issued for Asharani,who got herself admitted in a hospital in Dewas on Wednesday but went missing after she was discharged at night. Tijjibai,37,had set herself ablaze on the terrace of the couples house on Kolar Road,Bhopal,in May 2007. The couple had claimed that Tijjibai was like a family member and she had killed herself for some unknown reason. For almost three years,the police did not pursue the case. It was only after Bhaiyya Raja was caught in the murder of his 21-year-old grandniece,Vasundhara Bundela,that the police began investigating the case again. Vasundhara,a fashion designing student,was shot dead in December 2009,days after she had an abortion. In May this year,Bhaiyya Raja,himself a former MLA,was sentenced to life imprisonment in the case. Asharani,an MLA from Bijarwar constituency in Chhatarpur district,was not an accused in the Vasundhara murder case but was arrested in the suicide case in 2011. She was later released on bail.
