Indian domestic help lost arm in a fall, claims Saudi embassy

Kasturi Munirathinam,from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, is in a stable condition after undergoing a series of surgeries and will soon leave the hospital.

[related-post]

The family of Munirathinam, who worked as a domestic help, had alleged her hand was cut off by her employer when she tried to escape torture, but Saudi police said that it was severed after she fell from a  building in an attempt to flee.

“Riyadh’s Al-Sahafa police had received information from a local hospital about admitting a domestic help in its emergency section, saying that the woman’s arm was severed following a fall,” said Fawaz Al-Maimaan, spokesman for Riyadh police, in the statement.

“The domestic help, who arrived in the Kingdom nearly two months ago, was suffering from mental disturbances and therefore tried to flee the sponsor’s house,” Al-Maimaan was quoted in the statement, issued by the Saudi embassy in New Delhi. “All people in the Kingdom are equal and they will get all their rights guaranteed by the law based on the Islamic Shariah,” he said.

According to Al-Maimaan, the maid made a  ladder out of rags to escape out of the window of the sponsor’s apartment on the third floor of the building. However, she lost balance and fell down, hitting  the edge of an electricity generator and severing her arm on the scene itself.

This was testified by eye witnesses, including “her compatriots”, the statement said. When the sponsor heard about the incident, he took her to hospital.