NEW DELHI: "She would get angry at the drop of a hat. She would throw food at us as if we were dogs; beat me, didi (Rakhi) and Meena with antlers, sticks, rods or anything she could lay her hands on; she would not even hesitate to hit me on my private parts," a 17-year-old help , who is also the prime witness in the maid murder case, told cops. He did, however, feel lucky to have come out alive of the "hell hole" where MP Dhananjay Singh and wife Jagriti lorded over-175, South Avenue.

Jagriti said in her statement to police , "They did not give me importance, like my husband. That's why I kept them under cameras. They deserved to be beaten up. I found them in objectionable situations at times, so I hit them on their private parts so that they behaved."

In his statement, the boy alleged, "She would clip our hair, burn us with iron press, and kick us out if we went to ask her something. She used to act mad at times and tortured all three of us. She hated Rakhi didi the most. She used to stand on her chest and hurt her. Once she forced didi to tonsure my head when I wanted to go for a haircut."

The boy said that on November 1, Rakhi got a little late in cooking, which angered Jagriti so much that she hit her with an iron rod. "Didi started to bleed, but she was not taken to the doctor. Instead, I was asked to put some betadine on her wounds. She wasn't given any food either," he said.

On November 2, the boy said, Jagriti was still very angry and thrashed all of them when they woke up around 6am. "She hit me on the head with a rod. There was no food for two of us that day, too, and she threatened to get us shot by the guards. She asked me to wake didi up at 3.50am and threw a plate of rice at us. In the morning, when I woke up 10 minutes late, I was thrashed again," he said.

On Diwali, Rakhi's condition deteriorated and she stopped responding. "Madam asked me not to disturb her, saying she had given didi an injection to sleep and heal. When I went to give didi ORS, she was breathing very lightly," he said.

The children spent the Diwali weeping as Rakhi began to sink every minute. On Monday morning, Jagriti asked him to check on Rakhi. "I told her that her hand had tilted and she was not moving, but madam neither paid any attention nor did she bother to take her to the hospital. She then called up sir (Dhananjay) and informed him, after which he came to Delhi," the boy said in his statement.

The boy further alleged that upon finding Rakhi dead, Dhananjay began to remove cameras and threatened to destroy the children's families if they told anyone anything about it.