Army Major, wife arrested for torturing minor house help; stripped, thrashed her until she bled, made her lick blood

A Major in the Indian Army and his wife have been arrested from Dima Haso district of Assam for allegedly torturing and assaulting their minor domestic help. The Army officer identified as Major Shailendra Yadav, currently posted in Himachal Pradesh’s Palampur, two years ago married Kimmy Ralson of Haflong when he was posted in Dima Haso. After Yadav got transferred to Himachal Pradesh, his wife took the minor domestic help with her from Sankijang village to assist in household chores, a report by IndiaToday NE said. It was then, the underaged house help was tortured by the couple. She was scalded with hot water, her teeth were broken and there were burn marks on her body. The medical report of the 16-year-old girl revealed a fractured nose and deep cuts on her tongue, NDTV report quoted police sources as saying. Also, the girl was allegedly tortured for six months and starved by the couple who also kept her without clothes most of the time. When she requested for food, they would make her eat from the garbage bin, the report mentioned sources as saying. The NDTV report further said the girl was allegedly stripped and thrashed until she bled and she was also forced to lick her own blood. The girl returned to Assam on 24 September to visit her family when she revealed about the atrocities she had undergone over the past few months. A police complaint was registered and the couple was arrested. Recalling the horror, the girl said she was kept locked in a room and the couple used to pull her hair and beat her. “She was angry with my efficiency in household chores and beat me with a belan (rolling pin). She would strip me. She would beat me, and when I bled, she forced me to lick my own blood,” she alleged. The girl is currently receiving medical care at the Haflong Civil Hospital. Meanwhile, talking to media, her mother said she could barely recognise her when she returned home. “She had broken teeth and burn marks on her face. Her ears were mutilated and had difficulty in speaking. She is just 16, but she appeared like an elderly woman.” A case has been registered in Haflong Police Station against the couple sunder various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including U/S 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 374 (Unlawful compulsory labor), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (Criminal intimidation), 370 (Buying or disposing of any person as a slave), and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). Additionally, charges were brought under section 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Major Yadav and his wife were presented before the additional court of the Haflong judicial magistrate, which ordered their judicial custody. With inputs from agencies