Trafficked girl’s nails plucked, finger broken
THE TEENAGER FROM GUMLA TOLD THE CWC SHE HAD TO UNDERGO THE TORTURE FOR THE PAST NINE MONTHS AT THE CID COP’S HOUSE
RANCHI: A 13-year-old tribal girl was found with severe injuries and burns all over her body from a CID inspector’s house in Ranchi.
Childline India Foundation – an NGO — and the state labour department recovered the teenager with burn injuries, a blackened eye and an infected gash on the head late on Monday.
CID inspector Umesh Thakur and wife Madhuri allegedly burnt the girl from Gumla with hot iron knife, slapped her on face and kicked her in gut regularly.
“The employers had plucked off her nails with sharp objects. She also has a broken finger. The extent of suffering she had to undergo is difficult to express in words,” said Ranchi Child Welfare Committee (CWC) member Meera Mishra.
The rescuers said the incident reminds them of the horrific tale of a maid in New Delhi. The maid from Jharkhand was also found in a similar condition from a house in the posh locality and her tale hogged attention globally in 2013.
The teenager from Gumla told the CWC she had to undergo the torture for the past nine months at the cop’s house.
She said she was trafficked by an agent to Ranchi and placed at the police officer’s house in November 2015. Since her first day at work, which included washing utensils, clothes and sweeping, she was subjected to the inhuman treatment.
“He used to heat the knife and burn me with it. I cried for forgiveness, but he never listened to me,” the girl told CWC.
The girl is undergoing treatment at the Ranchi Sadar Hospital. The CWC members and activists said the girl was in immediate need of medical attention or else the infections in the wounds may cause gangrene.
A first information report against Umesh Thakur, his wife Madhuri and his brother-in-law Chandan Kumar was lodged with the Namkom police station on Tuesday. They were at large, police said.
They were charged under Juvenile Justice Act and Child Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act of Indian Penal Code.
Inspector general (organised crime) Sampat Meena on Tuesday formed a probe committee headed by superintendent of police (CID) Jaya Roy. “We will take necessary action on the basis of the report submitted by the committee,” said Meena.
The girl’s father is a daily wage earner in Sisai block of Gumla and is yet to be traced, police said.
At least 10,000 children from Jharkhand are trafficked to different parts of the country every year, say activists. “This is probably the first such incident in Ranchi wherein the employers have turned so barbaric and inhuman,” said Sujit Goswami of Childline.