A couple from Gurgaon namely Kamaljeet and Manish, who allegedly tortured and sexually harassed a 14-year-old girl they had hired as a babysitter was arrested on Tuesday night. The minor has been rescued from their New Colony house.
Police produced the accused couple in a local court on Wednesday. It sent the man to two days’ police remand for questioning, whereas his wife was sent to judicial custody.
The man was working with Max Life Insurance and the woman was an employee of PR agency Media Mantra
both of whom terminated their services on Wednesday.
The minor, originally from Ranchi, came to Gurgaon in mid 2022 with her maternal uncle. She was hired by the couple around five months ago through a placement agency in Delhi. A joint team of police and Sakhi, an one-stop crisis centre, rescued her on Tuesday.
She told them she had been confined to the house for the past five months, police said. There were several burn injuries on her hands, feet, and face. The couple allegedly assaulted her repeatedly with hot kitchen tongs and didn’t give food to her, forcing her to survive on leftover scraps thrown in the dustbin, she told police.
The couple used to watch her through CCTV and whenever she ate anything, she was beaten badly. When she used to take their baby to the park, she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone. If she did, she was tortured. If she raised her voice, she was beaten badly again. Kamaljeet broke child’s teeth hitting her with kadchi
They used to beat her with a belt, kadai, fork etc.
At present, she is undergoing treatment at a government hospital and her vitals are said to be stable. According to doctors, she has multiple burns and bruises across her body which will take a few days to heal.
A security guard at New Colony said, “I am not sure when the police team arrived at our colony on Tuesday. They first asked me about the house. I told the police that the couple stayed on the fourth floor and was asked to accompany them. The team rang the doorbell and the girl opened the door. She had visible injuries.”
Sakhi centre in-charge Pinky Malik filed a police complaint into the matter the same day, on the basis of which an FIR was filed. The couple was then arrested. The couple was booked under sections 323 (causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 34 (common intention), of the IPC and relevant sections of Juvenile Justice Act and Pocso Act. Both were produced before a local court.
In an official statement on their Twitter handle, Max Life Insurance said, “Max Life believes in upholding high levels of ethical and moral conduct at all times. We have severed the employment of the individual with immediate effect.”
“We are shocked to learn about the human rights and child abuse allegations against an employee. As an organisation, we respect the Indian legal system and are strictly against any form of human rights abuse. The company has terminated her services with immediate effect,” Media Mantra too wrote in a tweet.
