New Delhi: A 48-year-old woman from Siliguri, West Bengal, working as a domestic help in Delhi, was allegedly beaten up and her hair chopped off by her two employers in the national capital’s Rajouri Garden area.
The woman’s medico legal case (MLC) report, accessed by ThePrint — and dated 17 May — noted that she had multiple contusions, including near her eyes, head trauma, injuries in her limbs and abdomen and multiple healed wounds on her hands. The MLC report also noted that she was brought to the casualty section of the hospital where she is being treated, and had suffered “physical assault” by two known persons, about two-three days back.
The woman was allegedly assaulted Sunday by her employers and admitted to Safdarjung hospital Tuesday by the owner of B Placement, a domestic help employment agency from where she had been hired. A case was registered Wednesday on the basis of her statement, but no arrests have been made so far in the case, said the police.
DCP (West) Ghanashyam Bansal said, “We received information about the MLC Tuesday from Safdarjung hospital. The investigating officer has recorded her statement, where allegations of beating and chopping off hair were raised against the employers — a husband-wife duo.”
According to police, an FIR was registered Wednesday under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342(wrongful confinement), 355 (whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any person, intending thereby to dishonour that person) and 34 (common intention), of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“Investigation is on, efforts being made to nab the accused,” the DCP said.
‘Told me her blood pressure was low, fainted’
According to the agency owner, Praveen Kumar, the woman was employed by the couple in September last year, at a monthly salary of Rs 7,000.
“I got a call from the employers Sunday night claiming she was unwell. They asked me to come and get her admitted to a hospital. I told them that I couldn’t go then, but asked them to get her admitted to a hospital if she was very sick. They told me that they are getting her admitted somewhere. However, the next day, they came and dropped her off at my office,” Kumar told ThePrint.
The employers, Kumar alleged, had told him that the woman had had a fall.
“They told me that her blood pressure was low and that she fainted (and fell). Initially, she did not tell me that they (the employers) had hit her. Later, after she told me that malik (employers) had beaten her up, I took her to the hospital on 17 May (Tuesday). She wasn’t able to eat or sleep, and had injuries all over her body. She had no control over urine discharge, and could hardly walk,” Kumar alleged.
He added: “She wasn’t in a condition to talk much. Her face was swollen.”
Kumar also claimed that the employers hadn’t paid her the monthly salary ever since she was employed, and only paid the whole amount when they left her at his office.
Asked about details about the employers, Kumar said that he didn’t know much about them and admitted that he hadn’t collected any ID proofs from them.
“I provided them with the service (domestic help) because they had been referred by another family (their relatives), whom I have known for a long time. So I never collected their details, but I had their address and contact number,” said Kumar, who claimed he has been in the business of providing domestic helps to families who required them for over a decade.
Kumar alleged, however, that there had been another incident involving the accused couple last year, when he had provided them with another domestic. “After two months, they suddenly dropped her off saying she tried to poison their food. They didn’t pay anything for those two months,” he claimed..
The injured woman, Kumar claimed, has no family in Delhi. Her husband, he said, died some years back and “she had come to Delhi looking for work last year. Her brother will arrive here tomorrow,” he said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Cinema wronged domestic workers — Hum Aapke Hain Koun to Kal Ho Naa Ho. The script’s changing