VELLORE: Saudi Arabia continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons with yet another case of an Indian worker being harshly mistreated. Kasthuri (56), of Mungileri village near Katpadi, had gone to the Kingdom two months ago to take up work as a domestic housemaid only to have her right arm allegedly chopped off by her employer for lodging a complaint against them for ill-treating her. She is currently battling for her life in Kingdom Hospital in Riyadh.

The Saudi government machinery, according to rules prevailing there, periodically conducts inquiries and ascertains the welfare of housemaids of foreign origin. When the government agency inquired of Kasthuri, she complained that she was being ill-treated.

“My mother had told the officials a week ago that her employer was not providing her food properly and also ill-treating her. Following this, the government agency warned the employers not to ill-treat Kasthuri. The employers would have (chopped off her arm) after she complained about them,” claimed Mohan, son of Kasthuri. Mohan adds that she was admitted to the hospital by the police and with the help of an Indian, working there as a driver.

The victim’s family has pleaded with the government to bring her back and are demanding justice. Kasthuri’s husband, Munirathinam, son Mohan, daughters Vanaja, Selvi and Lakshmi and their relatives approached the district administration on Monday, seeking help to bring her back to India.

An agricultural labourer by trade, Kasthuri was approached by an agent from Tiruvannamalai with a promise of a monthly salary of `23,000 for working as a housemaid in Riyadh a few months ago.

Though her 37 year-old son Mohan, a mason, dissuaded her from going abroad as a housemaid, she took it as an opportunity to bail out the family from their mounting debt and left for Saudi Arabia on July 28 this year.

She started facing harassment from the very beginning and she alleged she was saddled with work without proper food, said Mohan fighting tears, after having talked to his mother in Kingdom hospital on Saturday.