Another case of abuse of a domestic help has surfaced in Noida near Delhi, the video of which is being widely circulated.
The victim, a 20-year-old woman, told NDTV that the family — residents of Noida’s Cleo County society — beat her and even threatened to kill her after she ate some jaggery. A police case has been filed after a CCTV clip from the building’s elevator, showing the woman being forcibly dragged inside, went viral.
The police said Shefali Kaul beat up the domestic help, Anita, regularly. When she refused to work and tried to run away, she was forcibly brought back. Anita, the police said, has bruises and scratches on her body and has undergone a medical check-up. The report is yet to come.
“She used to beat me every day, douse me with cold water,” Anita, who is still traumatised, told NDTV. “On December 26, I had eaten a bar of jaggery, so I was beaten with slippers. Then she threatened to set me on fire and throw me down from the roof,” she said, recounting the event that pushed her to escape.
She said she tied several dupattas end-to-end to make a rope of sorts and climbed down from the fourth floor. But the guard of the residential society caught her.
“The guard stopped me and called madam. She hit me and dragged me upstairs, choked my throat,” said Anita, scratches on her ears, eyes and neck starkly visible.
The CCTV footage from the elevator shows Shefali Kaul trying to drag the girl out as she tries to hang back. Holding her in a headlock, she finally yanks the girl out.
Anita said she had been working for the family since April and her contract had expired in October, but they refused to release her. “I wanted to go home,” she told NDTV.
“We received the complaint from the victim’s father,” said Saad Miya Khan, a senior officer of Noida police. The accused, he added, is missing and a hunt is on for them.
Over the last few years instances of violence being perpetrated on domestic helps, security guards, delivery boys, have been reported regularly from gated, high-rise residential societies in the National Capital Region.
In September, a woman professor, Sutapa Das, was seen caught on security camera slapping her society’s security guard in Noida.
The month before, a man in Gurgaon was seen repeatedly slapping his apartment’s security guard and another person because he got stuck in a malfunctioning lift.
The same month, a woman was arrested in Noida for manhandling a security guard and using obscene gestures and language. The reason was a delay in opening gates.
