NEW DELHI, January 22: Twelve-year-old Seema's eyes turn misty when she recalls her 36-hour ordeal at the Kotla Mubarakpur police station. She says she was repeatedly beaten up. Her `crime' -- she had seen the man who had killed a middle-aged woman in South Extension on December 10.Frail and slightly built, Seema dreads the men in khaki. As she narrates those hours at the police station where she was being interrogated about 50-year-old Kokila Verma's murder, her body shivers with fear. The scars have healed, but the pain is writ large on her face.
Seema had come to the city in search of a job and was living with her grandmother in the Kidwai Nagar jhuggis. A distant uncle, Shanti Das, 55, has been her only support ever since.
So, when Shanti found her a job as a servant at Kokila's South Extension house, her heart leapt with joy. Shanti, who does paintwork, says that he came by the job for Seema when he bagged a contract for repainting Kokila's house.
Shanti worked from November 10-18, but had to
discontinue when Kokila told him that she was leaving for Mumabai to attend a wedding.
``When she came back during the first week of December, she asked me if I could find her a young girl to give her company and help her with the household chores. She was living alone and seemed unwell,'' says Shanti.
Seema went to her new employer's house in the evening of December 9. She says that she cleaned up some utensils, served tea to three tenants living on the first floor and went to sleep after dinner.
Next morning, she was watching TV with Kokila, when the door bell rang. Seema says: ``Since I was new to the house, madam opened the door. A young man came in and sat on the sofa. I was asked to make tea for both, and after I did so they went inside the bedroom and locked the doors.''
She adds that Kokila did not call out the youth's name even once, but the moment he came in she had said Itne din bad aye hon. Kahan they tum? (You have come after a long time. Where have you been?''
Meanwhile, the youth,
came out of the bedroom after a while, and reportedly told Seema that Kokila was feeling unwell and therefore she should not be disturbed for sometime. ``He also told me that if anyone later asked me anything, I should say that Babloo, Manohar and Shanti had come. He was carrying a polythene bag with him which he did not have when he came in,'' recalls Seema.
Kokila's body was found in the kitchen after Seema narrated her conversation with the youth to a watchman. The former had been strangled and the police later discovered that some ornaments valued at Rs 50,000 were missing.Thereafter, Seema's ordeal at the Police Station began. She was threatened, tied up, hung upside down, and beaten up. She says that she repeated whatever had happened several times, but the police refused to believe her.
Her uncle Shanti was brought to the police station on December 11. A couple of others were picked up from the Kidwai Nagar jhuggis. ``For two days they beat me at intervals. When I pointed out that I had undergone
an operation sometime ago, the beating decreased. All that I ate during this period were a few samosas and a cup of tea,'' he says.
He was released on December 12 along with his niece, but had to report to the police every day throughout December last. Both were made to sit for hours and now and then the police would ask them a few questions.
It was only after the case was transferred to the Crime Branch that both obtained some relief. Shanti says: ``I have not been to work for days. I ensure that my niece is with me always. I don't know when some one will harm her.'' Shanti adds: ``I have told the police that I do not know any of the people the youth referred to when he was leaving the house after killing Kokila Verma.
If I am the Shanti he was speaking about then there is something seriously wrong. He seems to have been aware of my identity as well. But now I am afraid that the police will torture me and my niece even further. Can someone help us please.''
Meanwhile senior police officials say that
they are not aware of the incident at the Kotla Mubarakpur police station. But if they receive a complaint they will take action.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
