The family of 58-year-old Kasturi of Moongileri village in Katpadi taluk whose right hand was chopped off by her employer in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia is eagerly awaiting word from the Government of India on the efforts to rescue her and bring her back to India.
Mohan, son and Munirathinam, husband of Kasturi met the Vellore District Collector R. Nanthagopal along with a host of friends and relatives from the same village during the weekly public grievances redressal day camp at the Collectorate here on Monday. They submitted a petition to him seeking his intervention to rescue her and bring her back to India with the assistance of the Indian Embassy in Riyadh.
According to official sources, the district administration has forwarded the petition, with supporting details to the Commissioner of Rehabilitation and the Public Department of the Tamil Nadu Government immediately. The State government has also taken up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs. So far, the district administration has not received any intimation from the Government of India on the progress of the efforts to rescue Kasturi, who is currently undergoing treatment in Kingdom Hospital, Riyadh.
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A visit to Kasturi’s house by this correspondent on Friday revealed that Radha, daughter-in-law of Kasturi and Bagya, daughter-in-law of Munirathinam’s brother were the only persons belonging to the family who were present in the house. While Mohan, Kasturi’s son had gone to Chennai to submit a petition to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell, Munirathinam was busy with the ceremonies connected with the death of his mother about 10 days ago.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Suguna, a family friend said that Kasturi’s family was suffering from poverty owing to the inability of Mohan to do any work due to a disability and had sold the house. As irony would have it, Munirathinam and his family were staying as tenants in the house which they once owned. According to Radha, her mother-in-law had gone to Riyadh through a Tiruvannamalai agent to work as a servant maid in the house of a person to earn money and support her family back in Moongileri. Suguna said that Kasturi was sent to Riyadh by the agent to work in a family to look after a small child and an old woman.
The family got a bolt from the blue when Mohan got a WhatsApp photo from his nephew Srinivasan working in Chennai, which showed a wailing Kasturi lying on bed in a hospital undergoing treatment for the injury caused by the chopping of her right hand. Srinivasan had the photo sent to him by a brother of an Indian doctor from Riyadh. This prompted the family to meet the Collector and submit a petition. Suguna said that the family got the information that chopped hand kept by the house-owner in a refrigerator has been handed over to the hospital. The house-owner has been arrested, according to the villagers.