The zero FIR has been lodged under sections 323 (assault), 342 (wrongful confinement), 379 (theft), and 374 (unlawful compulsory labour) of the IPC and Section 16 of the Bonded Labour Act. A 22-year-old woman, who works as a domestic help, has accused a Haryana cadre IPS officer’s family of “torture and bonded labour”, prompting the police to lodge an FIR and launch investigations in the case.
The IPS officer, Rajesh Kalia, on the other hand, termed the allegations “frivolous” and claimed that the parents of the complainant want to extort money from his family by levelling such accusations.
On the basis of the girl’s complaint, Delhi Police on February 8 lodged a zero FIR and forwarded it to the Haryana Police for further action because the officer’s official residence in Panchkula’s Sector-6 has been stated as the place where the alleged incident took place.
The zero FIR has been lodged under sections 323 (assault), 342 (wrongful confinement), 379 (theft), and 374 (unlawful compulsory labour) of the IPC and Section 16 of the Bonded Labour Act.
The woman’s family currently lives in a colony of Delhi. Her father told The Indian Express that she was admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital two days ago as the “the accused had inflicted several injuries on her body.”
In her statement, the woman has told Delhi Police that she had started working at the residence of the IPS officer in March last year at a monthly salary of Rs 20,000.
The woman said, “Everything was fine for a month. After that madam (the IPS officer’s wife) started assaulting me. She did not allow me to talk to my family members. Around 7-8 days ago, she assaulted me badly and snatched my phone away. I was later locked in a room. On February 5, I was asked to leave the home. My salary and mobile phone are still with them. Some uncle telephoned my father, who then brought me to Delhi.”
On the other hand, Kalia told The Indian Express that an agency meant for providing domestic helps had sent the girl to his official residence.
He said, “We hired her initially. Some 3-4 months later, we had asked the agency concerned to take her back as we were not satisfied with her work. But the agency did not do so. For the past 4-5 months, she was not doing any work. We told her to go back to her home but she refused stating her parents used to assault her. She had some health issues too. In between she even tested Covid positive and had to be kept in isolation. We arranged for her treatment and allowed her to rest. But she used to refuse to have food and take her medicines and turned weak. Finally, when we discontinued her services, then she chose to level such allegations. Her parents want to extort money from us. She never wanted her parents to get any money from her salary.”
The IPS officer is currently posted at the Haryana Police headquarter in Panchkula as SP Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) with additional charge of SP/telecom.
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