This 15-year-old girl was allegedly tortured by her employers in Delhi for a year
The shrieks pierced the air of the fancy South Delhi colony, telegraphing that something was very wrong in the apartment where a 50-year-old woman, who worked at a private company, lived with her mother.
On Monday evening, a 15-year-old domestic help was rescued from the house, with horrific wounds all over her body.
"Her head was smashed in and she had dog bites. The whole neighbourhood came forward saying we used to hear screams but nobody dared to come forward and rescue this poor girl," said Rishi Kant, an activist who was part of the rescue team that found the girl.
The police and members of an NGO reached the flat at 6 pm. The elderly woman who answered the door refused to let them in. The rescue team had to wait for three hours before the woman's daughter returned. She had come with her lawyer.
When the team entered the house, they found the teen domestic help lying naked on the floor. Her body had gashes in different parts; she alleged that her employers had ordered their dogs to bite her.
The 15-year-old is now in hospital. A part of her skull is fractured; doctors say she was lashed with knives.
Kiran Walia, Delhi's minister for Women and Child Development, visited her this morning and promised a fast-track court will handle the trial of Vandana Dhir, the employer, who has been arrested.
"It is a horrible and barbaric act. The government will bear the cost of her treatment at a private hospital," Ms Walia said.
The girl said she was brought to Delhi by her aunt a year ago from Jharkhand and since then she had been beaten almost regularly with a stick or a broom, stabbed with a knife and punched and kicked. Her employers did not let her go home when she wanted to, she alleged.
The police waited till daybreak to arrest the employer as the law forbids the arrest of women at night and without woman constables present.