Panchkula: Assamese woman accuses Haryana IPS officer’s wife of torture, confinement, bonded labour

Panchkula, February 11

Panchkula Police have booked the wife of an Indian Police Service Officer on charges of assault and bonded labour after a 22-year-old Assamese woman said she had been tortured and confined at the couple’s Panchkula residence.

The suspect in the case has been identified as Manisha, the wife of IPS officer Rajesh Kalia, who’s the Superintendent of Police of Emergency Response Support System and holds the additional charge of SP, Telecom. He’s currently posted at the Haryana Police headquarters.

Manisha has been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 374 (Unlawful compulsory labour), 379 (theft) and section 16 of the Bonded Labour System Act.

The complainant said she was hired through her mother’s acquaintance in March 2021 for Rs 20,000 a month. She’s quoted as having said in the FIR that the suspect had treated her well in the first month but then the assaults began. Her employer would beat her up and would refuse to allow her to speak to her parents, the victim said in the FIR.

A week ago, the assaults escalated—the FIR said her employer beat her up, took away her phone, and locked her up in a room.

Then, on February 5, the suspect took the help of another domestic help to kick the victim out of the house, the FIR said.

“My phone is in their possession. Some uncle called my father, who then took to me to Delhi,” the FIR reads.

The victim’s family lives in a rented accommodation in Delhi’s Fatehpur Beri.

After this, Delhi Police registered a zero FIR but transferred the case to Panchkula Police.