NEW DELHI: The sordid story of a maid from Jharkhand being subjected to extreme torture at a Vasant Kunj house, as reported in TOI, culminated in the arrest of her employer, Vandana Dhir, on Tuesday. Fifty-year-old Dhir, the corporate communications director for India and South Asia at French engineering giant Alstom, was sent to one-day police custody by a trial court.

The traumatized girl — her age is yet to be clearly established — is now recuperating in the surgical ward of Safdarjung Hospital. Her body is covered with bruises, abrasions, cuts and open wounds and there is a deep gash on her head that's infected. Medical superintendent BD Athani said she was stable.

Dhir, who was arrested for allegedly torturing and illegally confining the girl, was produced before metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha at 2.56pm by Delhi Police. Besides slapping other charges, the cops have booked her for voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means, an offence which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. She has also been booked for various other offences under the Indian Penal Code, including voluntarily causing hurt, voluntarily causing hurt by using dangerous weapons and illegal confinement.

The police have also invoked Section 16 of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, which provides for punishment of three years and a fine of Rs 2,000 for bonded labour.

Wearing a blue T-shirt and maroon trousers, Dhir entered the court premises with her face hidden behind a blue stole. The proceedings were held inside the chamber of the judge. Sources said the police initially asked the court to send Dhir to Tihar Jail in judicial custody. The judge, however, told the cops that they should investigate the matter properly, prompting the police to file an application seeking custodial interrogation of the accused.

The court allowed the police's plea to conduct a bone ossification test on the victim to establish her age — i.e whether she is a minor or not.

Sources said the police told the court that Vandana had hired the girl in June this year. The victim has alleged to the police that Dhir used to make her do a lot of work — cleaning, dusting and washing utensils — forcibly and used to assault her with knives, sticks and brooms. The girl has alleged that to make sure she didn't run away from the house, Dhir won't give her clothes, the sources said.

Vandana stuck to her stand that she had never beaten up the girl and that she had fallen in the bathroom due to which she received the injuries, police said.

The victim, a resident of Jharkhand, was rescued from Dhir's Vasant Kunj home, where she had been working as a domestic help, on Monday night and admitted to hospital with severe injuries. The girl was rescued by a joint team of NGO Shakti Vahini and Delhi Police from the ground-floor flat.