PM seeks justice for TN woman whose hand was chopped off by Saudi employer: Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent meeting with Saudi ruler Salman Al Saud in Turkey sought justice for Kasthuri Munirathnam the woman from Tamil Nadu whose arm was chopped off recently by her employer in Saudi Arabia, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

PM Modi met the king Salman Al Saud in Turkey on the margins of the G20 Summit on 16 November.

The 56-year-old maid hails from Mungileri village near Katpadi in Tamil Nadu. She has returned home since the brutal attack in Riyadh in October.

Swaraj said when the incident of Munirathnam came to light, the Indian Embassy immediately contacted the Saudi Arabian authorities and insisted on registering an attempt to murder case,”However, I am pained to say that the Saudi authorities soon issued a statement saying she fell down while trying to flee the house of her employer… We have not accepted this and continue to pursue the case to get her justice.”

The External Affairs Minister said the government was working with several Gulf countries to stop the exploitation of Indian labourers in those countries.

Swaraj, who is also Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, said that it was a common complaint that many employers in Gulf countries seize the passports of their Indian employees to ensure that they do not return home easily.

To help such distressed Indian workers, she said, Indian missions often hold public grievance meetings to help them and try to retrieve such passports from their employers…If these efforts do not bear fruit, such distressed Indians are given emergency exit permit for their return.

The Minister said the government has already decided that all Indians going abroad as domestic help must go through government-registered recruitment agencies so that no exploitation takes place.

Swaraj futher added that those who go abroad through unregistered recruitment agents in an unscrupulous manner would be held under human trafficking and that the government is trying to bring such activities under the ambit of Anti-Human Trafficking Act.

PTI