Yogesh Kumar & Vineet Upadhyay | TNN | Updated: Mar 30, 2017, 08.36 PM IST
DEHRADUN: Residents of Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory (DEAL) Housing Complex here are shocked after a 21-year-old girl was rescued by police from the alleged six months of illegal confinement from the house of a senior scientist, who was out in Kanpur, on Wednesday.
DEAL director R S Pundir said: “The matter has come to my notice, which is unfortunate. Suitable action will be taken in accordance with law.”
Police, meanwhile, succeeded in establishing contact with the scientist who claimed that the girl was employed after an agreement. “The Raipur station officer had spoken with the scientist, who said he would be reaching Dehradun soon,” said Harbans Singh, Dalanwala circle officer (CO).
Police were also able to establish contact with the victim’s cousin sister, who arrived here from Meerut, to take her along.
After the incident, DEAL employee union has even written to Uttarakhand Human Right Commission, Uttarakhand Women Commission and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh to intervene into the matter.
Ajay Malik, a ‘G grade’ scientist which is equivalent to an Army Major General, is part of the team making a prototype of software defined radio for the Army.
According to a DEAL official, accept his friend, a senior scientist, no one knew about the maid being employed at his house. “Malik was supposed to return from Kanpur on Thursday, but he has not returned yet,” said a DEAL official living in the same locality.
A section of DEAL officials have also raised the issue of a private person living on the campus due to security issues. “All researches, equipment planning and manufacturing are done here, which makes the entire DEAL complex a sensitive place. I feel that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would take note of it,” said another DEAL employee.
Police, in the meantime, got a medical examination of the victim girl conducted at a government hospital, and booked the scientist under sections 343 (wrongful confinement) and 370 (trafficking of person) of the Indian Penal Code, following her complaint.
Police have also booked the person, Shambhu Mohar, who brought the girl from Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur to Delhi in 2009 on the pretext of securing a job for her, and later got her employed at the scientist’s residence six months back.
After receiving a call from the victim, police on Wednesday rescued her from the scientist’s residence. The girl was locked inside the house of the DEAL scientist, who is out of station.
“The door was opened after a neighbor provided the key, which the scientist had left with him. The girl was scared, and was found sitting in a small room full of dirty and filth,” said the CO.
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