(Descriptions of physical violence. Reader discretion advised.)
A 17-year-old girl, allegedly beaten up mercilessly her employers in Gurugram for the last five months, was rescued on Tuesday, 7 February, police told The Quint.
The couple who employed her has been arrested for alleged torture and assault.
The minor, originally from Jharkhand, is now undergoing treatment at a city hospital. Visuals of the her injuries, which have surfaced online, showed her face, hands and feet, bruised and battered.
Gurugram Police Spokesperson Subhash Boken told The Quint: “The girl was being contained at home and assaulted by her employers in Gurugram for the last five months. The couple has now been arrested under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 75 (cruelty to child) and Section 79 (exploitation of a child employee) of the Juvenile Justice Act, and Section 12 (sexual harrassment of child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act.”
The police spokesperson added that a complaint was made by the One Stop Centre in Gurugram, based on which the FIR was registered.
'Disrobed, Hit With Hot Tongs'
According to the FIR copy, accessed by The Quint, the girl said, "Both husband and wife had been treating me inhumanely for five months... and even hit me with hot iron tongs. They did not give me proper meals to eat, they would only give me a little bit of rice. They would make me work all day. They would disrobe me and hit me in my private parts. They kept me confined in the house and did not let me speak to my family."
She also said that she had been working there for five months and would take care of their three-year-old daughter.
Pinki Malik, the Centre Administrator of the One Stop Centre who filed the police complaint, told The Quint;
"We received a message that the girl was being beaten up for the last five months. The girl is not in a condition to talk much but she said that her employers would beat her up, tear her clothes, and hit her with hot vessels."Pinki Malik, Centre Administrator, One Stop Centre Gurugram
She added, "The girl also said that they would not give her food and would give her rape threats too. She is in the hospital and is stable now. She will undergo counselling once she has recovered.”
“The message was from an informant and not by the girl or her family. Her uncle got her the job through the placement agency a few months ago," she added.
'She Was Not Paid a Penny'
The visuals of the girls’ injuries, shared by activist Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj showed burn and injury marks on her face, neck, arms, hands and feet.
After the incident came to light, the founder of the PR agency that the husband worked for, tweeted that he has been sacked with immediate effect.
Bhardwaj told The Quint, “I had received a tip about the incident and had informed authorities. The girl herself was unable to inform anybody, and she did not have a phone. When I met her, she was severely injured and even her feet were swollen."
She tweeted, “I just met the girl. Short of words. She shared with me unimaginable horror. Blades, sticks, hot tongue – I don't think anything was left in assaulting this child. All this for - not finishing work on time. She wasn't paid a single penny for months of work."
“The girl said that all of this was solely because she would not finish work on time. They did not pay her even Rs 10 when she worked there,” she claimed.
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