Thane couple held captive by Kuwaiti employer returns

Representational images. Pic/iStock

The dreams of a woman and her husband from Thane to earn decent money in Kuwait were shattered when their employer exploited them and held them captive. However, thanks to the efforts of the ‘Bharosa' cell of the local police and the help extended by the Indian embassy in that country, the couple returned to India safely, a police officer said on Wednesday.

Assistant Police Inspector of Bharosa cell, Mira Bhayander Vasai Virar (MBVV), Tejashree Shinde said a woman from Bhayandar in the Thane district had lodged a complaint some time back stating a maidservant and her husband had been held captive by their employer in Kuwait.

The woman told the police that she knew the couple as she had worked with them in the past. "She stated in her complaint that the couple moved to Kuwait on April 5 this year through a recruitment agency. They were hired as domestic help by a Kuwait national. They were promised a monthly salary of R40,000 and were supposed to take care of two children besides housekeeping and cooking," Shinde said.

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However, their employer, Mosab Abdulla, forced the couple to take care of nine children and maintain a flat with six rooms. They were forced to work for 22 hours a day, she said quoting the complaint. Due to the workload, the woman fell sick and was admitted to a hospital in Kuwait.

"She somehow managed to get in touch with the woman [the complainant] in Bhayandar and tweeted her location urging her to help," Shinde said. The employer on learning of the tweet, snatched her mobile phone and didn't allow her and her husband to step out. Meanwhile, the complainant woman went to the Bharosa cell of MBVV police, who in turn got in touch with the embassy. On June 20, the victims stepped out of Abdulla's house on the pretext of buying vegetables and reached the embassy, police said.

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