Two maids were subjected to sexual abuse, torture, starvation at Gurgaon apartment.
By Dileep Thekkethil
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A Saudi Arabian diplomat in New Delhi has been accused by two Nepali domestic servants of allegedly raping them at his residence, apart from forcing them to have sex with his friends and torturing and starving them repeatedly.
The police have registered a case and have moved the maids to a shelter home in Gurgaon after they received a tip-off from a Delhi-NGO, Meitei India, on Monday.
According to the statements given by the house maids, the Saudi diplomat along with his family starved them, and sexually abused them along with a few Saudi nationals after holding them captive for a few months.
When contacted, the Saudi embassy denied all the charges filed against its official. According to police, the unidentified officer enjoys full diplomatic immunity and is currently inside the embassy.
Even though the police have registered an FIR against the diplomat slapping rape charges and charges related to illegal confinement, they are unable to register a statement of the unnamed official as he enjoys diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention.
According to The Hindu, the two maids, aged 30 and 50, respectively were lured to come to India on the promise of jobs.
The two women were allegedly subjected to torture inside an apartment in Gurgaon, for several months.
Gurgaon police chief Navdeep Singh Virk said that the maids had told that they were hired by the family and were taken to Jeddah a few months back for working as maids.
The women worked in Jeddah for a month and later returned to the apartment of the diplomat where they continued working as maids.
Virk said, “[The women] allege that the Saudi Arabian family detained them for the past four-five months, and they were not allowed to go out of the house, and during this period they were beaten up, raped and abused and threatened by the family and their guests,”
Senior Gurgaon police official Rajesh Kumar Chechi told The Indian Express that “The women were brought to the police station and later sent to the hospital for a medical examination that confirmed rape and sexual assault.”
The police also confirmed that the women were not abused during their stay in Jeddah and that the ill-treatment started only after they came to the apartment in Gurgaon.
One of the maids said to Times Now channel that “They would beat us every night and often there was more than one man who would torture and rape us. We have marks all over our body.”
The older woman was quoted by Indian Express saying “There were days when seven to eight men — all from Saudi Arabia — would assault us. If we resisted, the diplomat and his family would threaten to kill us and dispose of our bodies in the sewer.”
The police chief has also confirmed that all required details about the diplomat and the alleged charges have been handed over to the Foreign Ministry of India. Earlier Reuters had reported that the Nepal embassy is waiting for the police to submit their report after which they will launch a formal diplomatic complaint.
Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, has thousands of people working as domestic servants and bonded laborers in India and other Asian countries
Under Sharia law that exist in the Saudi Arabia, punishment for a rapist may range from flogging to execution. But sources say that diplomatic immunity enjoyed by the officer may complicate the case.
1 Comment
Uncivilized cavemen who think they can force themselves on other humans just like they do to their wives, camels and possibly any other subservient classes. Sick people with money as the only virtue to garnish their bestiality.