Singapore: Indian-origin woman jailed for abusing domestic help

A 38yearold Indianorigin woman in Singapore who applied foundation to her domestic helps face to cover up bruises from the police was on Monday sentenced to 10 months and ten weeks jail for maid abuse a media report saidDeepakala Chandra Secharan was convicted of three counts of assault involving her maid in January following a trialSecharan was sentenced to 10 months and ten weeks in jail and was also ordered to give the victim Eni Agustin compensation of SGD 4000 The Straits Times newspaper reportedBefore handing down the sentence on Monday District Judge Ow Yong Tuck Leong stressed that a clear signal should be sent out that maid abuse cases will be dealt with firmlyAgustin whose nationality and age was not stated in the court documents started working at Secharans apartment on December 9 2019 The abuse started 16 days later when she mixed up some cutlery while placing the items in a kitchen drawer Secharan repeatedly poked Agustins forehead scratching it Deputy Public Prosecutors Yang Ziliang and Chong Ee Hsiun said in their submissionsOn April 23 2020 Secharan hit the domestic help with a wooden clothes hanger until it broke and flew into a rage the next day when the maid could not find the masking tapeApart from slapping the domestic help Secharan also hit her with a stick on multiple occasions The offences came to light when police officers arrived at the convicts home following an alert by another maid the report saidAlso read Indian national charged for molesting woman in SingaporeOn April 25 2020 a maid in a lower unit called the Centre for Domestic Employees after she saw Agustins bruises when the latter was hanging laundry from a kitchen window The police were alerted and officers arrived at Secharans flat later that dayThe convict applied a thick layer of foundation on the victims face to hide the bruises and instructed her to lie to the police about the origin of the injuriesThe accused now convict then brought an ice pack for the victim and instructed the victim to lie to the police about the origin of the injuries the report quoted the prosecutors as sayingAccording to the report for each count of maid abuse an offender can be jailed for up to four years and fined up to SGD 10000This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever