KOCHI: The 55-year-old domestic help who was grievously injured on December 5 while trying to escape from alleged detention by climbing down from the sixth floor of an apartment in Kochi died in the early hours of Sunday. The incident occurred at Link Horizon apartment on Marine Drive.
Kumari from Salem in Tamil Nadu, who was injured in the incident, was working in the flat of one Imtiaz Ahamed, had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city for the past one week. She succumbed to the injuries, said a police officer, adding that a case was registered Ahamed after the incident. The police registered the case against him following a complaint by the woman's husband alleging that the flat owner had kept her in "detention".
The police team under Ernakulam Central Inspector, S Vijay Shanker, is carrying out the inquest proceedings of Kumari. The body will be handed over to the relatives after conducting a postmortem on Monday.
Meanwhile, the flat owner lodged a petition before City Police Commissioner Vijay Sakhare seeking an impartial probe into the incident as it was a theft attempt and his purse was recovered from the possession of the woman.
Kumari, who had earlier worked at the same flat till December 2019, had rejoined the family only in the last week of November. She tied two sarees to make an exit from the apartment. It seems she lost grip while climbing down and fell on the roof of the apartment's porch. A preliminary probe by police found that the woman used to sleep in the kitchen after bolting the door from inside. On December 5 morning, the family noticed that the kitchen door remained shut. Though they repeatedly knocked at the door in a bid to get Kumari to open it, there was no response. Later, they noticed the saree hanging from the balcony and conducted a search on the roof of the portico. The woman was found lying unconscious on its roof and she was rushed to a hospital.
However, mystery still shrouds why she decided to take such a huge risk.
Imitaz is also not new to controversies. There were complaints against him earlier too, according to the police.