AP woman faces torture by employer in Muscat

Inakoti Apparao, 55, a farmer from AP, is bedridden after learning that his wife Gangaratnam, who travelled to Muscat to work as a domestic help, is being tortured by her employer.

Ms Gangaratnam, who was in Sohar, Muscat, escaped from her employer a couple of times but local police traced and handed her back to her employer though she pleaded with them to take her to the Indian Embassy.

The family of Ms Gangaratnam, hailing from Bendapudi in Thondangi mandal in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, is dependant on agriculture. About a year ago, a woman identified as Vipparthi Kumar met Ms Gangaratnam and told that she was working in the Gulf for a good salary which had helped her family come out of their financial crisis.

She told Ms Gangaratnam that she too could travel to the Gulf and earn a good salary.

After she agreed to work in the Gulf, Ms Vipparthi Kumar procured a visa and other documents for Ms Gangaratham with the help of an agent, Dasari Babu Rao in Hyderabad, and sent her to Muscat in May 2016.

For the next three months, there was no communication from Ms Gangaratham to her family.

Her elder son Nagendra Babu said that they had called her and her agent Babu Rao every day but there was no response from anyone.

“After more than three months, she spoke to us once and sent us `35,000. Since then there have been few calls from her. Her agent Babu Rao is not responding to our calls,” he said.

According to her family members, Babu Rao, who was working in the municipal department in Muscat, had contacts with many people and is trying to prevent Ms Gangaratnam from leaving her employer.

During a call recently, Ms Gangaratnam told the family of the torture that she was facing in Muscat.

“She is forced to work for hours without food and made to sleep outside in the compound. A woman, who worked before her in the same house, committed suicide. Twice she escaped from the house but local police caught her and handed over to her employer.” said her husband, Mr Apparao.

The family is worried for her life now and is pleading the government to help out through the ministry of external affairs and the Indian Embassy.