Mumbai police rescue 9-yr-old girl made to work as domestic help; one held

The Mumbai police rescued a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly forced to do domestic work, and arrested a businessman who had brought the minor from Bihar to work at his house here, an official said on Thursday.

The Mumbai police rescued a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly forced to do domestic work, and arrested a businessman who had brought the minor from Bihar to work at his house here, an official said on Thursday. According to the police, the accused, Irfan Haider (29) and his mother brought the girl here from Muzaffarpur in Bihar two months ago to do domestic work.

The police recently received a video, in which the girl was seen cleaning the staircase and removing garbage from the man's two-storey house at Netaji Nagar in suburban Santacruz, the official said.

''After watching the video, we were shocked that a nine-year-old was made to work for a family of six people. We tried to contact the child's mother in Bihar, but couldn't get through to her,'' inspector Manoj Shinde from Vakola police station here said. The official said Haider told the police that they had brought the girl from Bihar to do domestic work.

Besides, the man's mother told the police that the girl's mother had willingly handed her over to them as the child's father was an alcoholic and would beat her up, he said.

The girl was rescued on Wednesday night and sent to St Catherine children's home in suburban Andheri, he said, adding that a special team will be sent to Bihar to take her back to her family.

The Vakola police arrested Haider on Thursday under relevant sections of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, while his mother is wanted in the case, the official said.