BJP ex-MLA's daughter moves HC for 'protection' from family

 The daughter of BJP's former Bhopal legislator Surendra Nath Singh has filed a petition with the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur seeking police protection from her family members.

Bharti Singh's lawyer Ankit Saxena filed the plea on her behalf.

Bharti, 28, said she left her home here recently after being tormented and drugged with "injections" by her family that wants her to marry an MLA's son.

Singh, a close confidant of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had lodged a complaint with Kamla Nagar police here on October 16 that his daughter Bharti had gone missing. Singh had said that his daughter was "mentally unwell", Kamla Nagar police station in charge, Inspector Vijay Sisodia confirmed.

In an audio and video clip being played out by a popular regional news channel, Bharti is heard saying that she had left her home to escape torture. "I am not with a Christian, Muslim.... I am safe," she is heard saying in the clip.

"I am mentally sound. My family has gathered fudged documents regarding my health as they are influential," she alleges.

Singh is upset that his daughter is keen to marry outside the community. He was not responding to calls from the media.

"I have left my home on my own," Bharti said. "I am happy where I am staying," she says without disclosing the place where she was putting up.

"I am being bothered intentionally. I don't want to return home," she pleads. "My cousin Sushil beats me. I am being tormented for last 10 years. This is not for the first time, I have left my home. I had done so 10-20 times in the past," Bharti adds.IANS