Dhenkanal, Feb. 18: Dhenkanal district child protection officials rescued a 12-year-old girl child from a contractor's house at Koraen Sahi yesterday. He had been allegedly subjecting her to physical as well as mental torture.

The victim, Dolan Maiti, hails from Midnapore in Bengal and was working at Jyoti Prakash Bera's house as a domestic help.

The district child protection officials and activists of Maharshi Dayananda Service Mission rescued her. They found injury marks on her body, including those of burns inflicted by hot iron, according to the district child protection officer Anuradha Goswami.

"We rushed to the spot after getting a call from Bera's neighbour. We found a lot of injury marks all over her body and got her admitted to the district hospital for treatment. Today, in accordance to legal guidelines we produced her before the child welfare committee. We will soon decide on her rehabilitation and will follow the guidelines of the committee," said Goswami.

The committee has ordered the girl to be lodged immediately at the local childcare institute till further orders.

"We decided to send her to the childcare institute. According to her statement, she came to Dhenkanal with the help of a middleman and started working at the contractor's house three years ago. She said she was tortured mentally and physically by the members of her employer's family. She was not allowed to go home despite repeated pleas. Unable to bear the torture, she ran out and sought refuge in a neighbour's family. Bera's neighbour informed the district officials," said Shanti Mishra, a member of the child welfare committee.Mishra said a detailed investigation would be made.