ROURKELA: Nearly a year after two women of Tarkera in Sundargarh district were sent to Saudi Arabia by a broker with job promises, they returned home on Sunday to narrate horrifying tales of torture and abuse by the employers as well as the broker.
On Tuesday, they lodged two separate complaints at Raghunathpalli police station against the broker Biswajit Mallick (32) of Tarkera and his family members, alleging that they were sold in Saudi Arabia for hefty amounts by him. The women also stated that they were kept in confinement by their employers and physically and mentally abused in the Gulf country.
The two women, aged 24 and 36, returned to their native place on Sunday after a month’s stay at Chennai.
The 24-year-old woman stated that Mallick is her neighbour at Tarkera and she was introduced to him by Mallick’s sister. As the woman’s husband was working in Chennai, Mallick and his family members lured her with a nursing job in Dubai with a monthly pay of `50,000. She further alleged that on the plea of arranging a meeting with some officials on December 13 last year, Mallick took her to a hotel where he allegedly raped her and secretly recorded the crime. She said she was blackmailed to pay more than `1 lakh to Mallick, who raped her from time to time.
Later Mallick took her to Delhi and from there he sent her to Saudi Arabia on May 3 instead of Dubai. In the Gulf country, she was engaged as a domestic help for a family and was forced to do odd jobs, including cleaning toilet. There she learnt that she was sold for `15 lakh. The employer used to torture and drug her every night. However, after there months, she managed to contact her husband at Chennai who, with the help of Indian Embassy, secured her return to India along with the other victim of the same locality.
The 36-year-old woman too claimed that she was sold for `10 lakh and stayed with her Saudi Arabian employer for a year doing menial jobs, including toilet cleaning. She was kept in inhuman condition. She claimed Mallick’s sister and parents had convinced her to accept a nursing job for `30,000 per month. Both the victims claimed they were not paid by their employers.
She said she was given electric shocks whenever she demanded to go home. When the other victim contacted her to go home, she was not allowed to leave till she threatened her employer to commit suicide.
Social activist Minati Debata said after returning to Chennai from Saudi Arabia, the 24-year-old victim was hospitalised for a month and both worked there to earn for survival and recently returned to Rourkela to seek justice. Police sent the victims for medical examination and initiated investigation. Mallick is at large.