CHENNAI: A government doctor and his wife have been booked for torturing a 27-year-old woman maid, who has been working for the family for the past 10 years. The couple has branded and beaten her repeatedly.
The city police registered the case on Sunday on a complaint lodged by the Madhavaram tahsildar, who along with other revenue and labour officials, checked the doctor’s house on Friday after getting complaints from the neighbours.
The medical examination of the maid and enquiries with the neighbours convinced the officials that the maid was brutally treated by Dr Raj Kumar, an assistant surgeon in Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, and his wife Kamalia Nazriya. The police complaint was lodged on Sunday.
“The maid had suffered several injuries and there were marks of branding on her body. It was clear that she had been branded several times,” said a police officer.
The victim D Joice, of Thingalur village, Thanjavur district, told the officials that she had been working in Raj Kumar’s home since she was 17 years old and was staying with them.
The Tiruvallur child welfare officials first got a complaint of ill-treatment of the maid, whom the neighbours assumed was a minor. Following the complaint, a team of revenue, child welfare and labour officials checked the flat of the doctor at Madhavaram Milk Colony on Friday.
Sources said Joice was present in the house when the officials visited and they took her for a medical check-up and treatment after they found injury marks all over her body.
“The neighbours told the officials that the maid had been inhumanely treated. She was even asked to use the tap water from the toilet for drinking and was often beaten. Food was also not given to her properly,” police said.
After treatment in a hospital, Joice was placed in a government home at Maduravoyal. The officials were trying to contact her relatives.