Nip trend of domestic helps alleging rape by employers: court

The recent trend of underpaid domestic workers making false allegations of rape and sexual abuse against their employers needs to be nipped in the bud, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a man of the charges of raping his maidservant. "A recent trend is surfacing where either a domestic worker is being underpaid or where she has been detained by the employer for an unusually long period or where her work is unsatisfactory that such a domestic worker unfortunately resorts to invoke the laws relating to sexual abuse for achieving their goal, may be due to ill advice..," said Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma presiding over a fast track court for trying sexual offence cases. The court made the observation while acquitting a west Delhi resident Sunil Sharma of the charges of raping his maidservant from April 29 to May 19, 2012. While the police had registered a case of rape against the employer, during her cross-examination, the alleged victim resiled from her statement that she was raped and instead told the court that she never mentioned rape before the probe agency or the NGO which counselled her. "A spurt of cases are being registered on the false allegations made by domestic workers, migrant as well as local, regarding rape and physical abuse by the employers. This trend requires to be nipped in the bud itself and the precious time of the government agencies i.E. The police, the judiciary etc. Should not be wasted," the court said. More