NEW DELHI: A day after a Saudi diplomat, his family members and his “guest” were booked for allegedly gang-raping and torturing two Nepalese women in Gurgaon, Haryana, Saudi Arabia lodged a strong protest with India over the raid at a diplomatic residence, even as medical examination of the victims confirmed rape.
Saudi ambassador to India, Saud Mohammed Alsati, met MEA’s joint secretary (Gulf) Thanglura Darlong, where he protested the intrusion into the house of the diplomat, who is a first secretary in the embassy. This was also mentioned in the statement issued by the Saudi embassy, which objected to publicising of the case by Haryana police.
As per sources, the MEA pointed out that Haryana police was not aware that the residence belonged to a Saudi diplomat, who therefore enjoyed diplomatic immunity. The police were acting solely on reports of two Nepalese women being illegally confined in the house.
The Saudi embassy has also dismissed claims by the two Nepali maids. “The embassy strongly stresses that these allegations are false and have not been proven,” said a statement.
It added that the embassy was awaiting clarification from MEA “about the matter and will wait for the outcome of the investigations”. Official sources said that the MEA has received the investigation report from Gurgaon police on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the police said the medical examination of the victims confirmed that they were “sexually and physically assaulted”. The victims were also subjected to unnatural sex and physical abuse.
On the request of Gurgaon police, a medical board comprising four senior doctors conducted a medical examination of the victims at Civil Hospital in Gurgaon, which confirmed that they were raped. Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk. He also said that the diplomat and his family members are in hiding and that the flat is locked.
Recounting their ordeal, the two Nepalese women said that they were treated as “slaves” by the diplomat and his family members. “They kept us in locked rooms and did not even let us make a sound. They threatened us with knives,” one of the women said, showing wounds on her hands.
They were told that the diplomat is a “good man with a big house”. “But we did not know what he did for a living. We were brought for handling domestic chores but he did horrific things to us,” she said. The victims said that they were locked in separate rooms and were gang-raped by the diplomat and his guests from Saudi Arabia.
“Five to six people used to rape us,” said the other victim, adding that she had not been paid wages for the last four months and now wishes to go back home as soon as possible.
The incident came to light when the diplomat hired another house maid from a placement agency. Neetu, from Darjeeling, found that the two Nepalese women were tortured and raped.
She managed to run away from the house and inform her acquaintance, who informed NGO Maiti India, who informed the Nepal embassy. The Embassy then wrote a letter to Virk.
The case was then forwarded to crime branch of Gurgaon police. The ACP (Crime) Rajesh Kumar said, “The team, after a minor scuffle, managed to rescue the two Nepalese women.”
Police recorded the statement of the victim and registered an FIR and thereafter their statements were recorded before judicial magistrate under Section 164 CrPC.
As per the FIR, the woman, looking for a job after the Nepal earthquake, was handed over by a human trafficker called Kalpana to another trafficker Anwar in Delhi. This is where she met the other Nepalese woman.
Anwar “sold” the women to the Saudi diplomat.