"Happy, Eating Properly": Minor Abused By Gurugram Couple To Be Home Soon

The teen help who was allegedly tortured by a Gurugram couple is "smiling" and "eating properly", claims the activist who first reported the heinous crime and flagged it to the authorities for action.

Activist Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj yesterday tweeted a picture with the minor girl -- her face blurred to conceal her identity. The post said the girl is now happy as her mother has arrived in Gurugram to take her home. Ms Bhardwaj said she has asked the girl to call her once she reaches her home. The accused couple, she said, are in jail.

The shocking case of torture came to light last week when Ms Bhardwaj posted photos of the girl and narrated the nightmare she was living far away from home. The horrifying photos showed marks of serious injuries suffered by the girl in repeated beatings, allegedly by Manish Khattar (36) and his wife Kamaljeet Kaur (34).

The girl is from Jharkhand's capital Ranchi. The Gurugram-based couple recruited her as a domestic help through a placement agency. In a police complaint against the couple, the in-charge of the agency has accused them of beating up the girl daily.

The complaint alleges that the couple would not let her sleep at night and did not give her food. "Her mouth was completely swollen while injury marks were found everywhere on her body," the complainant has said.

The FIR mentions the girl's age as 17 and not 14 as told by a police officer earlier.

Following the uproar over the shocking incident, the couple were sacked from their jobs. The public relations agency for which the woman worked and the insurance company where her husband was employed announced their termination on Twitter.

Both have been arrested and charged with wrongful confinement, causing hurt and under the stringent Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.