Spurt in false cases by sexual abuse of domestic workers:court

Acquitting a man accused of raping his maid, a fast track court has expressed concern over a "spurt" in cases of false allegations by domestic helps regarding rape and physical abuse by their employers.

The court also noted that "a recent trend is surfacing where either a domestic worker is being underpaid or where she has been detained by the employer for an unusually long period or where her work is unsatisfactory that such a domestic worker has unfortunately resorted to invoke the laws relating to sexual abuse for achieving their goal."

While making these observations, Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said that "this trend requires to be nipped in the bud itself and the precious time of the government agencies i.E. The police, the prosecution, the judiciary etc should not be wasted."

The court made these observations while acquitting a west Delhi resident of the charges of raping his domestic help twice and threatening to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone.

While acquitting the man, the court also noted that "today public outrage and a hue and cry is being raised everywhere that courts are not convicting the rape accused.

"It should not be ignored that the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law and the contents of the file as well as the testimonies of the witnesses and is not to be swayed by emotions or reporting in the media."

The prosecution case was that in July 2012, the girl, through a placement agency, got a job as domestic help of the daughter of the accused at a monthly salary of Rs 8,000.

The girl had worked for two months but was paid only Rs 2,000 and was allegedly raped by the accused when she went to demand the arrears.

The girl, however, in her deposition claimed that she had never told the police that she was raped by the accused.

She claimed that when she went to the police to lodge a complaint about non-payment of salary, she met an elderly man outside the police station, who inquired about her problem and made her put thumb impression on some blank papers.