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Journalism of Courage
An advocate and his wife,a management professional,have been arrested for torturing and starving their domestic help a minor girl to death in Ernakulam district of Kerala.
Whats even more bizarre and cruel,the couple sought the services of a veterinarian to treat the girl,Dhanalakshmi,11,after her health deteriorated from severe burn injuries and physical torture. The Tamil girl,who was sold in Kerala as a domestic help but ultimately became a bonded labour,died on Friday.
On Saturday,Ernakulam police arrested advocate Jose Kurian,36,his wife Sindhu Nair,37 and two others suspected to be middlepersons.
One of them,Nagappan,was from Pondichery,who feigned as the uncle of the girl. The other,a Kerala woman Shyla Naser,allegedly supplied girls from poor Tamil families to work as domestic servants in Kerala.
Police said Nagappan sold Dhanalakshmi,a native of Kanyakumari, to the advocate for Rs 15,000 three weeks ago. Shyla acted as the go-between.
All of them have charged with murder and other the Juvenile Justice Act and are currently in judicial custody.
While they were being taken for investigation,an irate crowd at Aluva tried to manhandle the accused.
Aluva circle inspector K B Prafullachandran said Sindu,employed with a financial house,used to burn the girl with cigarettes. She confessed that they used to pour hot water on the girl,apart from poking her with burning firewood.
The provocation for the torture was that the girl could not perform all the back-breaking domestic works,although she was bought for looking after the couples child.
Dhanalakshmi had sustained around 100 burn injuries. The couple also used to squeeze her fingers under their shoes,said the police.
Quoting the postmortem report,the police officer said the girls thighs and face had deep wounds,suspected to be inflicted with a fork-like object. She weighed only 20 kg and for nearly one week,she was not given any food.
He said after Dhanalakshmis condition deteriorated,the couple consulted a veterinarian who used to treat their dog. The doctor was told that their dog required medicine and accordingly,the girl was administered with vet medicine. The girl was admitted to a local hospital on February 22 after she slipped into coma. She died on Friday.
Her body was shifted to the morgue after a Tamil couple,who claimed to her parents,could not produce any proof.
