Iraqi held for molesting teen

Pune: 18-year-old orphan says foreign student stripped her on first day of her job as housemaid at his Kondhwa flat
"I was always against appointing a young girl as a housemaid. All the while I kept telling him that we could manage the housework between us. But he insisted on appointing one, and see what has happened!" said the Iraqi student sharing a flat with his friend and countryman Qusay Jaddoa Ahmed (26), who was arrested for molesting his housemaid.

It wasn't me: Iraqi student Qusay Jaddoa Ahmed. The second year MA student of a college in Camp says he did not molest his maid but no one believes him because of prejudice against foreigners. Pic/Jignesh Mistry

A resident of Flat No. 12, Building C-5 Parmar Pavan, Kubera Park, Kondhwa, since October, Ahmed is a second year MA student at a college in Camp. An 18-year-old orphan worked as Ahmed's housemaid.

The 18-year-old woman went running to a relative, who is also a housemaid, to tell her she had been molested. The news spread like wildfire and the victim's aunt was informed.

The aunt said the accused stripped her niece, but she broke free after a struggle.

"I am yet to come to terms with my husband's death just 15 days ago, and now we have been troubled again with this foreigner attempting to sexually abuse my niece," she said. "When I saw her she was all in tears. She said after she had spent an hour cleaning the

flat, the person started taking advantage of her and removed her clothes, but before he could proceed further my niece screamed and after a brief scuffle she was able to run away."

After the news reached the victim's aunt, she took up the matter with the watchman since he had introduced the victim to the accused the previous day as someone who would work for him.

"My niece chose to work there after the watchman assured her that they were good people," she said.

Ahmed, who was at the Kondhwa police station for questioning, said it was a false case but no one was ready to believe him because prejudice ran deep against foreigners.

"It is a false case; they are implicating me because I am a foreigner," he said. "No one believes foreigners in India."

The victim's aunt said Ahmed was just trying to save his skin and had even tried to bribe her niece against speaking out.

"If he was innocent, then why did he stuff Rs 120 and a bottle of perfume in my niece's hand, asking her to keep quiet?" she said.

Ahmed was thrashed by people living in the maid's neighbourhood. After MLA Mahadev Babar intervened, he was handed over to the police.

Senior Police Inspector Prasad Hasabnis of the Kondhwa police station said they had registered a molestation case against Ahmed.

"According to the victim, it was her first day on the job and Ahmed attempted to outrage her modesty," Hasabnis said. Ahmed will be prosecuted and only after his case gets over can he go back to his country."