Ranchi, May 30: Police have arrested Sanjay Sinha (50) and his wife Nutan Sinha (45) from Audrey House this afternoon for allegedly attempting to murder their mentally-ill daughter, Lovely, by keeping her locked inside a room for seven days.

They have been sent to the Birsa Munda Central Jail. Officials at the Kotwali police station said: “An FIR has been lodged against the couple under Sections 307, 342 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. All the sections are non-bailable.”

The couple was arrested after senior superintendent of police M.V Rao and a reporter of an English daily rescued Lovely (16), from her B-type government apartment near Audrey House yesterday.

The girl was kept locked by her parents in a dark room, without ventilators, for the past seven days with two buckets of water, some packets of biscuits and snacks.

Police officials said: “The couple said they were innocent. They told us that they did not intend to kill the girl. They said since they had to attend a marriage, they left their mentally-ill daughter alone.”

Sources said: “The girl is Nutan’s stepdaughter. She had a always been ill-treated by Nutan. Lovely’s brother left the house because his father and stepmother treated his sister badly.”

“Nutan has no children. Sanjay is her second husband who works as a typist at the chief minister’s secretariat. As she wanted to kill her stepdaughter, she often left her alone at the house,” sources added.