Maid dumped in Delhi hospital with broken back

When 14-year-old Sanjana’s (name changed) parents sent their daughter with her uncle to Delhi a year ago, they wished she would live a life better than they could give her.

When 14-year-old Sanjana’s (name changed) parents sent their daughter with her uncle to Delhi a year ago, they wished she would live a life better than they could give her.

The daughter of daily wage labourers in Orissa’s Balasore district, Sanjana got a job to take care of a businessman’s children in west Delhi’s Paschim Vihar area.

Her parents were happy their eldest daughter had finally found a better home.

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But life for Sanjana was far from rosy. In fact, it literally turned out to be a back-breaking experience.

On October 22, her employer dumped Sanjana at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital with multiple injuries and a fractured spine. “A week before Diwali, my employer’s wife asked me to clean the garage. I was asked to start by clearing up space by lifting a heavy trunk,” she said.

“The trunk was too heavy and fell on me. I started crying in pain but my employer’s wife slapped me several times and threw me into the toilet. I had to lock myself in because I was scared she would make me lift the trunk again.”

The businessman then dumped her at the hospital after his wife told him Sanjana was now a liability, said Ashok Chand, DCP (crime).

The Delhi Police’s crime branch found her in the hospital after a non-governmental organisation (NGO) tipped them off.

The businessman, Abhinav Arya, who manufactures laundry equipment, and Sanjana’s uncle, Suresh Behera, have been arrested.