Domestic help abuse:Airhostess, sister arrested

An airhostess, who had allegedly assaulted her 13-year-old domestic help and locked her inside her house, was today arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court.

Air India airhostess Bira Thoibi and her elder sister Stoile Naubi, who had brought the girl to Delhi, were arrested early this morning.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ashok Kumar, during an in-camera proceeding, remanded Bira Thoibi to judicial custody till November 13 after the Delhi Police said she was not required for custodial interrogation.

Besides Bira, her elder sister Stoile, was also produced before the court and was sent to judicial custody. Stoile had come to the court along with her baby.

The minor girl was rescued by the police and an NGO on October 28 after she managed to reach terrace of the Sarojini Nagar apartment in south Delhi by slipping out from a ventilator and sought help from neighbours.

The girl has claimed that she was locked inside the house by her airhostess employer who had gone to Australia.

According to police, after her rescue, the girl was produced before the Child Welfare Committee where she had alleged that she was beaten up several times with a belt, starved and locked inside the house.

Court sources said police told the magistrate they have booked both the sisters under various sections of the IPC dealing with causing hurt, wrongful confinement, slavery, provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, Bounded Labour Act and Child Labour Act.

Another magistrate had yesterday recorded the statement of the minor girl after police had moved a plea seeking court's permission to record the victim's statement by a magistrate under section 164 CrPC.