Man accused for raping maid, let off by court

Domestic workers, who are being underpaid or detained by employers have started misusing laws related to sexual abuse for achieving their goal, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a man accused of raping his maid.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau let off Model Town resident Nikunj Ahuja, who was charged for raping his domestic maid in October 2010 while she was sleeping in drawing room of the house. It said that the 18-year-old girl's statement was highly vague and it was not reliable.

“It has been observed that in those cases where either the domestic worker is underpaid or where they have been detained by the employer for an unusually long period that these workers have unfortunately resorted to invoke the laws relating to sexual abuse for achieving their goal, being ill-advised as has happened in the present case,” the court said.

It said that recently there has been a spurt of cases being registered on allegations made by the migrant domestic workers regarding rape and sexual abuse either by the persons of the placement agency or by the employers.

“In many cases these young girls from backward areas are being rampantly exploited by those running the placement agencies who use them (the girls) as pawns to settle their personal scores with their professional rivals and customers who seek employment of such domestic workers from their agencies,” Lau said.

According to police, the girl was employed by a placement agency in Ahuja's house as maid in 2008. On October 16, 2010, when she was sleeping in the drawing room the accused dragged her to his room and allegedly raped her. 

Police said, when the maid told them about the alleged incident to Ahuja's mother the next morning, she in turn beat her and did not allow her to leave the house. In November, the maid ran from the house and informed about the alleged incident to the owner of the placement agency who reported the matter to police, it said.

The court, however, said the whole sequence of incidents as narrated by the maid does not appear probable.

 “It creates a doubt in the mind of this court that even after the incident the maid was regularly going out to buy milk, bread, eggs and also taking their pet dog out of the house in the evening and there was sufficient opportunity for her to inform the owner of the placement agency about the incident...,” the judge said.

The court said the girl appeared to be a perpetual liar and she had tried to mislead the court about the aspect of place of incident and the manner in which it had happened.

Ahuja, in his statement, had said that he was falsely implicated by the girl at the instance of the owner of placement agency who tried to blackmail him and his family for extorting money. 

The court acquitted Ahuja and observed there was no regulation to control these placement agencies, but the legislatures have taken a note of this  and were in the process of putting in place some control and regulatory mechanism for it by way of a legislation.