An 18-year-old Dalit girl who works as a home assist on the home of Tamil Nadu DMK MLA I Karunanithi’s son has alleged that she was bodily tortured and was denied medical care by her employers. Nonetheless, Karunanithi denied the lady’s claims and mentioned his son’s household used to deal with her properly and solely “pulled her up after she did something wrong”.
In a video shared by Proof, a non-profit organisation, the Dalit girl mentioned she accomplished twelfth grade and received employed as a home assist by way of an agent. She was working on the home of Karunanithi’s son Anto Mathivanan and his spouse Marlina in Chennai.
She mentioned she had been employed on the home for seven months and her employers used to “physically assault” her in “whatever way they wished to”. She additionally added that she was not paid her wages.
“Even if I don’t do the smallest task properly, they would slap me on my face. Once, they asked me to prepare food by 6 am because they were going out of town. I hadn’t slept till 2 am the previous night. Nobody can survive without sleeping. I could only get up by 7 am. Because I couldn’t keep the food ready, they burnt my hands using a hair straightener,” the woman said, while breaking down.
She added that her employers did not take her to the hospital no matter how much they “tortured” her or how much she bled. “I had to treat it myself,” she added.
The woman also said the couple threatened her, saying they come from an “MLA’s household” and nobody would come to her help if she told anyone about the alleged torture.
The issue came to light when the girl was dropped off at her house during Pongal. Her family took her to a government hospital in Ulundurpet after they noticed she had injury marks on her body.
The hospital alerted the police after assessing her injury. However, police told India Today TV that they have not received any complaints from the woman or her family.
“We got information from the government hospital and based on that, we reached out to them. But a formal complaint is yet to be filed either in Chennai or in Ulundurpet,” mentioned an official.
In the meantime, the DMK MLA denied the allegations towards his household and mentioned they have been serving to her research and in addition received her jewelry.
“I often don’t go there (to his son’s home). The woman had apparently completed one thing incorrect, and so they pulled her up for that. They’re serving to her to check. She is taking on-line courses. They’ve additionally received her jewelry and different issues,” said Karunanithi.
“I can share movies of how they saved her properly, celebrated her birthday and all,” he added.
Karunanithi alleged that the woman was in touch with someone over the phone and “somebody within the background” was making her raise the allegations against his family. However, he added that he has “no connection” to the entire incident as he doesn’t visit his son’s house often.
The DMK MLA also said the woman already had injury marks when she first came to work for his son.