Gurugram House Help Assault Case: Placement Agency Owner, 1 Other Held

The owner was reportedly paid Rs 30,000 from the accused, of which the associate received Rs. 10,000 as commission.

The house help, who was allegedly beaten brutally by her employers, was rescued on 7 February.

(Illustration by Aroop Mishra/The Quint) 

Days after the minor domestic worker was rescued from a Gurugram household, where her employers allegedly thrashed her for months, the Gurugram police on Friday, 10 February, arrested the owner of the placement agency from where the 17-year-old had been hired, and another person involved in her placement.

Who are the new held? The owner was identified as Arun Kumar Turi, and the other accused is one Manish Nag, reported The Indian Express.

Arun was reportedly paid Rs 30,000 from the accused couple, and Manish received Rs. 10,000 as commission.

Placement agency was not registered: The report quoted a police official as saying that Arun's agency, which operated from Delhi, was 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," the police added, reported The Indian Express.

The big story: A 17-year-old girl, who was allegedly beaten up her employers for the last five months, was rescued on 7 February.

The couple who employed her has been arrested under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 75 (cruelty to child) and Section 79 (exploitation of a child employee) of the Juvenile Justice Act, and Section 12 (sexual harassment of child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act.

The minor, originally from Jharkhand, is undergoing treatment at a city hospital. Visuals of the her injuries, which have surfaced online, showed her face, hands and feet, bruised and battered.

What next? As per the report, Manish and Arun will be produced in the district court Saturday and they will be taken on remand for further questioning to probe.

(With inputs from The Indian Express.)