A 39-year-old woman from Birbhum was rescued from a Gurgaon apartment where she was allegedly held in bonded-labour conditions for more than a year.
The woman was reportedly taken to Delhi for domestic work after an advance payment of ₹40,000. She was promised a monthly salary of ₹12,000 but never received it, said her sister, who had filed a police complaint at Illambazar police station.
“She was employed in a highly digitised facility equipped with smart locks and could not even make phone calls. Her freedom of movement was severely restricted, and she was unable to leave her workplace. The family she worked for allegedly made her work for more than 16 hours a day and subjected her to physical abuse almost every day,” said Sumana Majumder, a social worker who runs an NGO that works with marginalised people in Birbhum.
The woman is separated from her husband and had worked at a local hotel before moving to Gurgaon, Majumder said.
On Saturday, Majumder accompanied a team of Bengal and Gurgaon police officers that carried out the rescue. The couple who own and live in the apartment were not home during the raid.
The woman’s sister approached the authorities for assistance in March. The family said the woman was able to contact them only when a technician visited the apartment for repair work. She managed to call her family, inform them of her situation and urge them to seek help.
Majumder’s NGO played a key role in coordinating among the police, the district legal services authority and the state labour department.
Following an inquiry, the labour department identified the case as one of bonded labour and recommended immediate intervention to the district magistrate. Acting on the recommendation, the district magistrate directed the superintendent of police to initiate legal proceedings.
Based on the complaint filed by the sister, an FIR was registered under Sections 9(2), 16 and 17 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, along with relevant provisions of the BNS.
“The woman will be brought back to Bengal and produced before a Bolpur court on Wednesday. A magistrate will also record her statement under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita,” said a police officer in Birbhum.