10-year-old domestic help hit with hot tongs, relatives allege

A 10-year-old domestic help, who was allegedly thrashed by her employer, was often hit with hot iron tongs, according to the relatives. The incident had taken place in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka.

The relatives said that the girl was hired to take care of the accused’s child but was also assigned household work.

The accused couple, Kaushik Bagchi, 36, and his wife Poornima Bagchi, 33, have been arrested by the Delhi Police. Both the couple are working professionals. Poornima works as a pilot at a private airline while her Kaushik is an employee of another carrier.

The victim lived in JJ Colony with her family, which is just 500 metres away from the accused apartment.

The girl was working there for about two months, but none of her family members knew that she was subjected to “abuse”.

On Wednesday morning, the victim’s aunt saw Poornima beating the girl while she was working in the balcony. The aunt went to couple’s house with others but nobody answered.

It was only after creating a ruckus, they opened the door and let the child come out, the relatives alleged.

“She (victim) was shivering and crying when she ran out. Her face was swollen and bruised. She told me that the woman forced her to do all the work and beat her up. Whenever she made a mistake, the woman would attack her with hot tongs or hot iron. Her hands have multiple burn injuries,” the girl’s aunt alleged.

According to the uncle, there were burn marks on victim’s arms and other parts of the body and had bruises on her eyes. The victim told him that she was also left to starve for the last three-four days and was often given stale food to eat.

“Some days ago, the girl was ironing a uniform of the woman and by mistake, she apparently burnt her clothes. When the woman (accused) noticed that a part of her uniform got burnt, she inflicted burn injuries on her with the same clothing iron,” he said.

Police said medical examination of the victim revealed that the burn injuries were old while other injuries sustained were fresh.

But it is yet to be ascertained if the burn injuries were caused by the accused during the period of her stay with the couple, they said.

The girl’s relatives demanded strict action against the accused couple and said they should be taught a lesson so that no one dares to commit such an offence with any poor child.

They said the girl’s parents, who come from a village in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, had gone to their native place due to the sudden death of a family member.

Her parents would reach Delhi on Thursday, the uncle said.

After the incident came to light, the couple was confronted by the victim’s relatives who also manhandled them.

In a purported video of the incident, the mob could be seen attacking the accused couple. Some of the women were also seen slapping and pulling the hair of the accused woman, who was in her uniform.

Poornima was heard apologising in the video while Kaushik was seen shielding her from the agitated mob saying that “she would die…Leave her.”

(With inputs from PTI)