Chandigarh: An 18-year-old domestic worker was found dead under suspicious circumstances at a house in Chandigarh’s Sector 10 on Saturday. The residence belongs to retired Gujarat Police IPS officer Gurinder Singh.
The deceased has been identified as Tapti, a native of Santri village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi district. According to her family, she had started working at the house as a live-in domestic helper about a week ago.
After receiving information about the incident, police reached the spot, took possession of the body and shifted it to the mortuary at the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital in Sector 16 for post-mortem examination.
The victim’s family has accused the house owner of murder and alleged that police were attempting to suppress the case. They have demanded a fair and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.
Tapti’s brother-in-law, Vikas, said she had been employed as a full-time live-in domestic worker with a promised monthly salary of ₹20,000.
According to the family, Tapti called her sister Priyanka at around 11 pm on Friday, saying she was unhappy at the house and was being troubled. Priyanka advised her to leave the job and return home the following morning if she felt uncomfortable. However, Tapti did not explain the situation in detail before ending the call. Subsequent calls made by the family reportedly went unanswered as her phone was switched off.
Vikas alleged that around 8.30 am on Saturday, the house’s driver informed the family that Tapti had died by suicide after hanging herself. He said the family requested that nothing at the scene be disturbed and that the body should not be moved until they arrived.
However, when the family reached the residence, they found that the body had already been taken to the Sector 16 hospital. Questioning the sequence of events, they asked why the body had been removed despite their request to preserve the scene.
Police have initiated an investigation, and the exact cause of death will be determined after the post-mortem examination and further inquiry.
