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MANGALORE: A case of a homemaker allegedly selling the child of her domestic help surfaced at the monthly SC/ST meeting organized by Mangalore City Police here on Sunday.
The homemaker, a resident of Kottara Cross, forced maid Swetha to send her child away to an ashram on grounds that she was not able to provide attention to domestic chores while looking after her child. The latest the maid knows is her child could be in Saudi Arabia.
Swetha said her employer forced her to send the child to an ashram. Alleging that the homemaker put her in a children’s home without giving her the details, Swetha said her employer has been stonewalling queries related to her child for the past five years and not allowing her to meet the child. When Swetha recently left the job with the homemaker after seven years, the latter informed her that her child was sold to a person in Saudi Arabia. Swetha came to know that the child had been kept for some time at a home in Talapady. However since she could not find the child there, a police complaint was filed on June 28. To make matters worse for Swetha, the homemaker in turn filed a case with jurisdictional Urwa police station accusing the domestic help of stealing foreign liquor from her house. Swetha said this was a tactic to arm twisting her and prevent her from seeking whereabouts of her child.
DSS leader SP Anand said the police constable at Urwa station threatened Swetha to compromise and forced her to pay Rs 70,000 in all as penalty. Alleging that this compromise was arrived at without due investigation. The homemaker had economic wherewithal to buy off the constable and act in her favour, Anand told M Muthuraya, the deputy commissioner of police (Law and Order) who chaired the meeting. The DCP directed police to trace the child.
(TNN)
