Bengaluru: The custodial death of Mahendar, a domestic help who died in Jeevan Bima Nagar police station on Saturday, will be just an add-on to the list of cases of custodial deaths that remain unsolved. The incident turned advantageous for the police as the victim was a native of Odisha and belonged to the economically weaker section without.
The victim’s brother, who is also not financially sound, will now have to take care of his two children. There were no protests by rights activists demanding justice for the victim, which also worked in police’s favour. They blamed the death on the health condition of the accused. The suspension of the six police officers hours after the incident was just a preemptive action by the police to prevent public uproar.
“There are several instances where domestic servants are not only tortured by their employers, but also by the police when they are caught in an alleged theft incident at their employer’s house,” says Geeta Menon, an activist. “The police dealing with numerous repeated cases such as these have led to what they have become now. It’s a natural following of what the policing character has become dealing with these poor defenseless men/women who toil hard for their daily bread,” she added.
Previous incidents
Recalling an incident from Mahalakshmi Layout police station in August 2015, Geeta said a woman servant, accused of stealing jewels from her employer’s house, was taken to the police station and threatened that she would be stripped naked. She admitted to the offence just to save herself from the humiliation. Geeta said that they brought this to the notice of senior police officers who did not take any action against their subordinates.
“Another incident at the Mahadevpura police station in November last year – A domestic woman servant was accused of stealing a purse from her employer’s house. The police were summoned and two constables came in, beat up the women mercilessly before the employer. She still denied the allegation. The police then asked the employer to search the house, and the purse was found where the employer had left it. When the victim protested over the incident with the help of few activists, the employer, corporator of the area, and the police threatened the woman against lodging any complaint against the employer and bundled her into an auto-rickshaw and sent her out of town,” Geeta said.
