Murky details: Servant’s ‘fall’ lands employers in trouble

Family claims the boy fell when he tried to escape after stealing Rs1,17,000 from the house.

KARACHI:

Wrapped in a red blanket, a 10-year-old domestic helper drowsily rests in an ICU ward of a government hospital. Miles away, his exasperated employer, a doctor by profession, is restless in a police lockup.

Whether the boy slipped or was pushed down by his employer, Dr Muneel Kumar, from the sixth floor of IBA Apartments in Clifton has yet to be established.



However, since Monday night, sympathies of human rights activists, media and parliamentarians have been pouring in for Haresh.

Police officials and Haresh’s family stress that the boy was pushed down by Dr Kumar, after the doctor accused him of stealing Rs1,17,000 from his house.

On the other hand, medical practitioners and Dr Kumar’s family deny that the boy was pushed. If he was pushed off from the sixth floor, he would have had died or at least broken some bones, they added.

Medical reports and observations prove that the boy did indeed fall. According to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s Seemin Jamali, the boy suffered a linear fracture on his head and a minor injury on his leg. However, there are no violence or torture marks on his body.

At the Boat Basin police station, Dr Kumar’s wife claimed that he fell. “Haresh had climbed down from the window of a room, and walked down the ledge until he fell from one storey above the ground.”



The boy was trying to escape as he was afraid he would be turned in to the police for stealing the amount, she claimed.

She recalled opening the locked door, finding the window open and not seeing the boy. When she peeked outside the window, she saw the boy falling. The family hurriedly rushed him to the hospital.

On her iPad, she played the video of the boy confessing to the theft in front of Kumar’s mother. “You can see in the video that he is physically well and no one has harmed him.” She said that the video was recorded to notify the boy’s family of the offence.

“I don’t know why everyone is blaming us. I treated him like my own son and gave him designer clothes. I took him every time I went out.”

The doctor added that they had employed Haresh two months ago. Dr Kumar claimed he was innocent and was being trapped. “I have a boy of about the same age. How can I push him?”

Boat Basin police official Zulfiqar Ali said he had taken the employer into custody for investigations. An FIR, under section 324, has been registered against the doctor at the boat basin police station. “I think Dr Kumar tried to scare the boy by making him stand near the window when the boy slipped.”

Haresh’s father, Raichand, with a black shawl draped around his shoulders, told The Express Tribune, “Working as a labourer and earning Rs200 a day was not enough for me back home. I had to send him to the city to support my family.”

Raichand has arrived from their native of Sindhri, Tharparkar, to the hospital.

Sajan, the boy’s uncle who worked at the same house, refuted the robbery charges. “He is only a boy. How can he steal money?” he asked, adding that he was indeed pushed down by Dr Kumar.

When Haresh was asked by The Express Tribune about being pushed, he shook his head to answer in negative but when a relative asserted that he was pushed, the boy replied in the affirmative.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2014.