“Neglected by my sons, I was forced to leave my homeland. With the promise of a golden dream, my near ones betrayed me. My dreams were shattered after I entered India … a heinous crime was committed against me. They held me captive and tortured me and my soul, leaving me in a room of despair,” >sings Sreejana (name changed) in Nepali bursting into tears.
Almost three weeks after she was rescued from the Gurgaon residence of a Saudi Arabian diplomat, Majid Hassan Asroor, Sreejana shared with The Hindu the story of her pain and suffering — first at the hands of her drunkard husband and then the diplomat and his friends who allegedly subjected her to repeated, horrific sexual abuse.
Sreejana, who had been kept in captivity for over three months at the Gurgaon house, recounts: “I, along with another Nepalese woman, was kept locked up in the same room. They would hang a quilt, on either side of which each of them would be raped by Majid’s guests. Whenever his wife and daughter were away, he would also join in,” she said, demanding Rs. 1 crore in compensation and life imprisonment for the accused diplomat.
Sreejana says her ordeal had begun much earlier, just months after she got married.
( Song translated by actor-director Kamal Bhatta )
“My husband turned out to be a drunkard; he would suspect my fidelity and beat me up often. I do not know how I had two sons and a daughter by him. I could not bear the everyday torture and finally when my eldest son was 15, I divorced him,” she said.
When both her sons refused to take care of her, Sreejana’s daughter offered her shelter.
“For how long could I have been dependent on her? I always wanted to be independent,” she said.
When her daughter-in-law Kalpana offered her help to get a job abroad, Sreejana thought her luck was changing. “My daughter paid for my passport,” she said.
Dreaming of a better future, Sreejana travelled 481 km from Morang to Kathmandu by bus. During the five-day stay in Kathmandu, she was told that a visa for Oman was being arranged for her. “However, there was a sudden change in the plan. They claimed that I was not medically fit for Oman and would now have to go to Saudi Arabia, for which I first needed to visit Delhi. They said I would get a monthly salary, food and accommodation … it was all a lie,” she told The Hindu here.
Sreejana was brought to Delhi where she stayed for 10 days at the residence of one Kamal, a trafficking agent.
“There were five other women in the same room. I was then taken to Majid’s house where I worked for 45 days. He had promised Rs. 12,000 a month, but I only received Rs.7,000.”
Thereafter, the victim was taken to Mumbai where suspected trafficking agents Anwar and Aslam kept her for about 20 days in a house, along with 30 others.
“I was then taken to Sri Lanka and a week later, we left for Jeddah with a Sri Lankan woman. I was shocked to see Majid at the airport. I was, however, unaware of what was in store for me” she said.
After working at the residence of Majid’s mother-in-law for a month, she stayed with him in a hotel for a fortnight. “As long as we were in Saudi, things were fine. But then I was again brought to Gurgaon. When I resisted, Majid told me that he had bought me for Rs. 5 lakh and I would have to do anything they asked for.”
Within days, Sreejana’s life changed dramatically. To her, it seemed to be a never-ending trauma, but then a recently hired maid Neetu soon discovered what the two Nepali victims were going through and alerted Meiti India, leading to their rescue on September 7.
The Saudi diplomat flew out of India days after the police raided his house. The Nepal Police have arrested Kalpana and an agent, Jeet Bahadur Darji.
