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Shweta T Nanda
Shweta T Nanda

NOIDA

Missing maid and a violent mob: Two versions of the story

PTI7_12_2017_000227B Local villagers gather at a housing society to protest after a domestic help was allegedly beaten by her employers on suspicion of theft in Noida on Wednesday | PTI

Yesterday we asked our Bangaladeshi maid if she had stolen money as we had a feeling she has been doing that. We told her that we have a video of her stealing money from home. She thought that she got caught and accepted that she had stolen Rs 10, 000 which she asked to be deducted from her salary. We refused and told her that we will inform about her to the facility as she can do this in other 12 houses of Mahagun Moderne, too. She insisted not to inform in facility as she will lose work. But we chose to inform in facility and asked her to come to the facility with us. But she ran away and the same will be captured in CCTV, too. During this issue, she forgot her phone at my home. It was around 5:30pm, and on the spot I went to the facility, informed everything to Mr. Ramaswami and submitted the phone to him. He told me not to worry and that he will take care of it as these maids do this often. I went back home.

Then at 9pm, two ladies from Mahagun came to my home along with the maid's husband and two guards. They asked us that maid Zohra hadn't returned home. I told them what happened but suddenly her husband asked me if I had taken her phone. I thought how her husband knew that the phone is with me if his wife hadn't reached back home. I felt that they are making up the story.

Then around 10:30pm, her husband came to my house again accompanied by two policemen. I narrated the whole incident again to the police and also told them about the phone. The policemen shouted at her husband and asked him not to disturb us. They also told me that they do these things often and that I don't need to worry. They told her husband to search for his wife outside or file a complaint.

We slept assuming that the story is over and pledged not to hire a Bangladeshi maid in future.

But in the morning they came in groups and you all know the scenario. They broke the glass door and entered my house. It was terrifying. It's about our life and I am afraid about the safety of my family and kid.

I believe if they had searched the CCTV visuals, it can be found how, when and where this maid went out of Mahagun. 

When this Whatsapp message landed in 35-year-old Shikha Mehra's (name changed) mobile phone, the Noida resident didn't pay much heed. But after a few minutes, she realised that a barrage of messages had started pouring in her residential complex's Whatsapp group.

“I was shocked to read the message,” says Mehra, a resident of Mahagun Moderne located in Sector 78, Noida . “Then I stepped down to see it myself. It was a riot-like situation.” Angry domestic workers were protesting and pelting stones, she recalls.

On the receiving end was the Sethi family with whom Zohra worked as a maid. Police had to intervene to control the violent mob. The violence stopped when Zohra was found, not at the Sethis' place but in a 25th floor flat of a neighbouring tower where she worked.

Now, there are two versions of the same story. Two separate FIRs have also been filed and police, reportedly, said that separate investigations will be carried out. 

Harshu Sethi says Zohra Bibi, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi domestic help, was caught on camera stealing money, and all this happened after she questioned her. 

Zohra, however, claims that she had a tiff with Sethi regarding due of Rs 12,000, her pending salary of two months. When she demanded it, her employer accused her of stealing money and beat her up. She fled to the basement. When her husband and family came to enquire about her, they, too, faced violence, she claims. 

While some swear by Sethi's version, others are on Zohra's side. “Abuses were hurled from both sides,” an eye-witness told The Week on conditions of anonymity. “I was there when it happened.”

He says all this could have been avoided if the first layer of security had done its job well. “If they had located that a person who entered the premises had not left at night, and had done something about it, perhaps, this could have been avoided.”

Another resident says currently residents are rattled and fearful. “It has led to racial profiling. There are talks that maids of Bangladeshi origin and Muslims should be banned from working in the society as house-helps.”

But that's only a temporary solution, he says. “You have to address the root cause of the problem—a transactional relationship between the employee and employer.”

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Topics : #violence

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