Minor girl, taken as maid, rescued from policewoman's house

Thane: A 15-year-old girl from Karnataka who was made to work as a domestic help by a policewoman in Thane was rescued by the Child Protection Unit of Thane police and the employer arrested.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Bharat Shelke who acted on a complaint from an NGO about the minor girl being kept as a housemaid by a RPF constable, attached to Kalyan Railway police, raided the cop's premises on Thursday and rescued the girl.

According to police, the girl, fed up with the constant harassment she faced at the hands of her step mother ran away from her residence in Gulbarga and landed at Kalyan station in Maharashtra where the woman constable, Indu Kelkar (35) spotted her and took her home.

According to the police, the teenager had requested the constable not to inform her parents following which the policewoman allegedly made the girl to clean utensils, mop floor and also cook at times besides assigning her other domestic work.

Kelkar has been arrested and offence has been registered under sections 23, 26 and 32 of Juvenile Justice Act and various sections of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, with the Kolsewadi police station of Kalyan division.

Police said the girl was reluctant to return to her family and hence has been lodged at the Bhiwandi remand home.