Post News Network
Baripada, July 1: A minor girl engaged as domestic help was brutally tortured by a couple — Panchanan and Sandhayrani Samal — that had employed her at Tulasi Choura area in Baripada of Mayurbhanj district.
The woman allegedly used to brand her with hot metal apart from forcing her to undertake heavy workload.
Police arrested the couple Friday.
The victim is 11-year old Madhusmita Singh of Darghadihi in ward 15 under Baripada municipality, according to reports. Her father Kat Singh is a daily wager while her mother had died when she was in Class II.
Grinding poverty had forced Madhumsita, who has three siblings, to work as a domestic help in Bhubaneswar at the age of seven. Later, she returned to Baripada and has been working at the house of Panchanan Samal for the last one month.
Madhusmita said Samal’s family members used to torture her every day and she was made to do all kinds of work. The child alleged that she was often branded with a hot iron and that there were even a couple of attempts to kill her by drowning her in water.
The girl also alleged that Sandhayrani beat her everyday as she was unhappy with her work. She was not also properly fed. Rather she was fed stale and leftover food.
The girl said she has multiple grievous wounds all over her body as a result of the brutal torture meted out to her. She was at times locked inside a room. She, however, managed to escape Friday.
After walking for 1 km and crossing the Jarali-Sarali river, the girl fainted at Triranga Club in Purnchandrapur. Members of the club and local people present there rescued her and provided her preliminary treatment.
On being informed, police rescued the girl and took her to the police station.
Police registered a case against the Samal couple on the basis of the complaint lodged by the girl and Panchanan and Sandhyarani. The couple was produced in a court. The child was brought before the child welfare committee.
District child protection officer Mamatamayi Biswal said that the minor girl will be rehabilitated.