Accused couple in Gurugram domestic help torture case paid Rs 30,000 to placement agency

Even as shocking details in the story of a 17-year-old domestic help who was tortured by her employers and rescued from a house in Gurugram emerge, the local police on Friday nabbed Arun Kumar Turi, owner of the placement agency from where the minor was hired. Another accused, Jharkhand native Manish Nag, who allegedly helped out with her hiring process was also arrested.

“Arun runs a placement agency in Delhi. Probe has found that the agency is not registered. Manish works in housekeeping and has been in touch with Arun since the lockdown. The minor’s maternal uncle was acquainted with Manish from Jharkhand and when the uncle came to Delhi, he contacted Manish and asked him to arrange a job for the minor as her family was struggling financially. Manish took the girl to Arun, who in turn gave him the address of the couple in Gurugram and Manish brought the girl to Gurugram,’ a police officer told The Indian Express.

As per the police probe, Arun allegedly took Rs 30,000 from the accused couple and out of this Rs 10,000 was transferred to Manish as a commission.

The police officer also told the publication that Arun had two FIRs of human trafficking registered against his name in Jharkhand.

The girl from Ranchi in Jharkhand was hired through a placement agency and the couple made her work and also beat her mercilessly daily, according to the complaint filed by Pinky Malik, the in-charge of the Sakhi centre that along with police rescued the girl.

According to the teen's testimony, the couple hit her on the mouth with a spoon, which broke her teeth. She was also burned with matchsticks and every time she did not work or did not work properly, she was tortured. Khattar, the accused in whose house she was working, used to strip her naked and hurt her on her private parts, according to the FIR. The victim said the couple confined her at their house and did not allow her to talk to her family.

She was burned with a hot tong in her ear and had to go under an ear surgery at the hospital because of the severity of her condition.

The FIR has been registered against the couple under sections 323 (causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Provisions of the SC/ST Act were also added to the charges

The police have invoked POCSO Act's section 12, which pertains to punishment for "sexual harassment".

(With agency inputs)