Ranchi, Sept. 16 :     Karmi Oraon came to town today. The illiterate manual labourer, who looks like she is about 60 years old, was here to open a bank account. One of her daughters is Lalita Oraon, the 19-year-old tribal maid of an Indian diplomat in Paris. Lalita?s plight in the diplomat?s household is being highlighted by a European NGO in a sex-and-slavery scandal. The reason Karmi came to town was to open a bank account for which she had to get herself photographed. When she last saw Lalita, the teenager was bidding farewell. ?She was off to videsh on a bus,? recalls Karmi. That was in January this year. Later that month, Karmi received a letter from Paris. ?I cannot read or write,? she says. ?So others in the village read it out to me. I don?t remember now what it said and I have not even kept it with me.? And, no, she insists, Lalita as she knows her, is neither ?hysterical? nor ?insane?. Lalita is Karmi?s second-born after a son, Sudan. She was followed by two more daughters ? Magdali and Anjali ? and another boy, Albina. They live in Hehal, a village about 4 km west of here, where Karmi is a ?reja? ? a manual labourer ? at a site owned by a Ranchi businessman. Karmi says she has never received any money from Lalita or her employers, the Luguns, who are also from Ranchi. But she was in town today to open a bank account, nine months after Lalita ?left for videsh on a bus? and days after the Committee Against Modern Day Slavery (CCEM) brought charges against First Secretary Amrit Lugun. Lugun?s family insists they have paid Karmi every month for Lalita?s services. Pradip Topno, a relative of Amrit Lugun, said Lalita was sent to Paris to work as governess for the Luguns? children. Under the contract, her salary was Rs 2000 per month. Topno said the Luguns were dissatisfied with Lalita who was ?hysterical?. On one occasion, said Topno, she had even thrown one of the children from the pram during a walk. He did not know if Lalita had a past record of hysteria. Topno said Lalita?s mother had been sent to Jamshedpur to attend a wedding in the family. She would return only on Sunday. Our Delhi Bureau adds: Praveen Goel, additional secretary (administration) in the Ministry of External Affairs, would be in Paris to look into the sex-and-slavery scandal. ?We are in touch with the French government through our mission in Paris to ascertain the facts,? Indian foreign ministry spokesman R.S. Jassal said. First Secretary Amrit Lugun has been charged by the CCEM with maltreating his maid. The maid was found loitering in Paris streets last week. A medical examination has reportedly revealed that she had been sexually abused. Though there are indications that the young first secretary is being recalled, the spokesman maintained no decision has been taken yet. ?Further comments will not only be unnecessary but also unfair?, said Jassal. Reports with the Indian foreign ministry from France suggest that though the NGO had sought to turn the scandal into a major issue, it has not been played up prominently in the French press.