LUCKNOW: At yesterday’s [Aug 25] learning of what is known as “Bilasia Murder Case” in which Mr. B.B. Singh, I.C.S., Secretary to the U.P. Local Self-Government, stands charged with the murder of his 18-year-old maid servant, it transpired from evidence of witnesses that the maid servant, Bilasia, was in love with Samuel, a bearer of the household.

It was also understood from the evidence of Mr. Singh’s Ayah, Mussamat Halliman, that Mr. Singh was obsessed with ultra-moral notions of his maid servant’s character. ... Further cross-examined, witnessed deposed that she had told Gangadei, Ayah of K.S. Misra’s children, that Mr. Singh had struck Bilasia two blows in his room, on her back. At the time, Mrs. Singh and her mother were in the lower storey of the house and the European governess was in the upper storey. Nobody intervened while the beating was being given. ... She had heard Mr. Singh asking Bilasia why she had been immoral and that it was a matter of great shame. Bilasia made no reply to Mr. Singh. ... The walking stick was then produced and witness recognised it as the same ... because Benarasi, another servant of Mr. Singh, had told her that the stick had been split on one side as a result of the beating. — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2018