A 15-year-old girl, who was employed as a domestic help in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur, was found dead in the toilet of the house where she worked under mysterious circumstances, police said on Saturday. The condition of the dead girl indicates that she was constantly tortured.

According to PTI, the couple who hired the girl as a domestic help have been detained and are being questioned by the Aminjikarai police.

Tortured using iron burns, cigarette butts

Preliminary investigation suggests that the minor girl was subjected to constant torture by her employers, including burns from a hot iron and cigarette butts, before she succumbed to her injuries in a flat in Mehta Nagar in Aminjikarai area.

According to The Hindu report, the police said that the girl’s body had marks of burns and strangulation. They said that on Diwali, she was tortured and beaten by one of the suspects. She then went into the bathroom and remained motionless despite repeated calls from family members.

The victim was brought to the city by two people to do domestic work a year and a half ago and was working at a rented house.

The employers of a 15-year-old have been arrested

The accused couple, identified as Mohammad Nishad and Nasiya, allegedly left the girl’s body in their toilet and fled to the man’s sister’s house. Sources say his lawyer informed the police about the death.

The incident came to light when the owner of the rented house, where the victim was employed, learned of the housekeeper’s suspicious death and alerted the police.

Officials then broke open the locked door of the home where they found the dead in the bathroom. The inmates of the house, including Mohammed Nishad, were missing.

Police are awaiting the post-mortem report from Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital to ascertain the cause of the girl’s death. The victim is survived by a widowed mother.