Delhi domestic help murder: ‘Kin had no phone, she couldn’t contact them’

The incident comes even as the Delhi High Court recently pulled up the Delhi government over the delay in regularising placement agencies providing domestic workers, and clamp down on human trafficking.

Police said the team went to her house and escorted one of her brothers to Delhi to identify the body. (Express photo)

Soni Kumari was 13 years old when she went missing from her village in Ranchi. Her family had approached the local police station and lodged a missing persons complaint but to no avail. Three years later, she wound up dead inside a drain in Delhi — allegedly murdered by a man who had brought her to the capital.

A police officer privy to the investigation said, “The family had lost all hope of finding Soni. When a police team reached her house and showed the family a photo of her body, her mother went into shock.” Police said they located the girl’s family while searching for the accused, Manjeet, in a village in Ranchi. “A team was sent to his village. They also showed a photo of the girl to villagers and one of them said she was from village Malgo (Dhada), next to their village,” said the officer.

Soni Kumari was 13 years old when she went missing from her village in Ranchi. (Express photo)

Police said the team went to her house and escorted one of her brothers to Delhi to identify the body. Following the post-mortem at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital on Friday, the body was handed to her family. “The girl’s father died a few years ago. No one in the family has a mobile phone, so the girl didn’t how how to contact them,” said the officer.

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The incident comes even as the Delhi High Court recently pulled up the Delhi government over the delay in regularising placement agencies providing domestic workers, and clamp down on human trafficking. Rishi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini, who works with trafficked victims, said they have documented several cases of domestic helps being abused and committing suicide in Delhi/NCR. “Police don’t investigate the circumstances under which they commit suicide…,” he claimed.

He added that the chairperson of the Jharkhand Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Arati Kujur, had also written to Delhi Police, asking for a report on the recent death of a domestic help in New Friends Colony. “Till now, there has been no reply from police… The way this girl was killed shows the modus operandi of organised criminals — where they take money from girls,” said Kant.

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Domestic Help death