Jail term for Indian maid in Bahrain

The 33-year-old maid in Bahrain falsely claimed that she was abducted and forced into prostitution.

An Indian maid in Bahrain who had falsely claimed that she was kidnapped from outside her Bahraini sponsors' house and was forced into prostitution has been sentenced to one month in jail.

HT Image

The 33-year-old maid, who admitted to the charges, was also given a two-week jail term for illegally staying in Bahrain.

According to a report in the Gulf Daily News newspaper, the Lower Criminal Court in Manama handed out the sentence after it was proved that the complaint she had lodged with the police was false.

The court ordered that she be deported out of Bahrain for three years after she completes her jail sentence.

According to the report, the maid had claimed that she was kidnapped from outside her employer's house at Busaiteen near Manama, while she was watering plants, by two men who had come in a taxi.

"I resisted them but they were too strong for me and they pushed me into the taxi and drove towards Manama, where they took me to a flat, where there were other Indian women," she was quoted as saying.

She had claimed that she was forced into prostitution in that flat along with other Indian women.

After three months, she said she managed to escape to the Riffa area near Manama. Thereafter, for 18 months, she worked as a part-time maid for various families, living with other Indian women in a home, she claimed.

However, when asked by police, she could neither identify the men who she claimed had kidnapped her nor could she give details of the other Indian women she said had been forced into prostitution in the Manama.

She could also not remember where in Manama the flat she alleged she had been confined to was located.

Police arrested her earlier this month.