Delhi Police on Friday recorded the statement of the 18-year-old maid who was rescued from South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj flat under Section 164 of the CrPC. In her statement, she told police that her employer, Vandana Dhir, used to thrash her with dog leash and forced her to drink urine.
In a related development, the 45-year-old arrested aunt of the domestic help, Dorothy, revealed that she was running a human trafficking racket for the last four years with help from her husband. They were operating the ring from their native village in Sahabganj district of Jharkhand. Meanwhile, Delhi Police are planning to use her statement as evidence against Dhir, who works as the country communications director, Alstom India and South Asia, in Noida.
A senior police officer said that the victim’s mother arrived on Friday morning and met her daughter after three years at Safdarjung Hospital. “The victim told police that her employer forced her to drink urine but when she refused to follow her orders, she scalded her with a hot frying pan and struck her on the head with a broom,” the officer added.
The victim also told police before her mother that her employer, Vandana, kept her in a semi-naked state and laughed after flogging her mercilessly. The victim has recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPc before the magistrate and given a detailed account of the torture.
The victim has four siblings, she is the eldest one. The victim’s sister also works as a domestic help in Mumbai and the victim’s mother, a widow, earns Rs 150 per day. Meanwhile, after the arrest of Dorothy, the South district police are now planning to use her statement as evidence against Dhir and make her their star witness.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police was on Friday asked by a city court as to why the placement agent, held for providing a domestic help, was not made a prosecution witness in the case. “Why did you (police) not make her (accused) a prosecution witness instead of arresting herIJ She would have been a very important prosecution witness in the case,” Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha said, while remanding Dorothy to judicial custody till October 7.
Police said that the accused, Vandana Dhir, who is in judicial custody till October 15, had said she had asked the placement agent to replace the maid but it was Dorothy who insisted that there was no replacement for the domestic help.