Couple thrashed, held for 'torturing' 10-yr-old

A 33-year-old woman pilot and her 36-year-old husband, both employees of airline companies, were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly employing a 10-year-old girl as their domestic help at their Dwarka home and physically assaulting her, police said.

- Karn Singh and Aheli Das

 

The minor, police added, was rescued with several burn marks on her body.

Before the police was informed about the matter, however, the couple was assaulted by a group of people who came to know about the alleged mistreatment of the minor. A video of the couple being beaten, ostensibly on Wednesday morning, by a group of people also surfaced on social media.

The arrested woman was identified as Poornima Bagchi, who works with IndiGo airlines and her husband as Kaushik Bagchi, who is a ground staff with Vistara airlines, according to police.

They were arrested from their rented flat in a four-storey building in Dwarka Sector 8, police said. The two were booked for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons of means, wrongful confinement, buying or disposing of any person as a slave, and cruelty to child under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323, 324, 342, 370 and 75, Juvenile Justice Act and Child Labour Act. The case was registered at Dwarka South police station.

“We have arrested the couple. They had illegally employed a child as their house help. Our initial investigation has revealed that they were often subjecting the minor girl to cruelty. The burns looked old and healed. The girl told us she was burnt with an electric iron some 20 days ago. We are verifying the allegation,” said deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan.

The minor girl’s eyes were also swollen and red, suggesting that she was punched, according to her relatives. She was sent for medical examination and later counselled, police said.