A domestic worker who said she was kept against her will by another woman at a house for more than seven months, and beaten and tortured, has escaped.
She had bruises to her face and body after she said she was tortured, beaten and threatened while at a Penal house.
A 38-year-old woman and her teenage son were arrested by police officers on Saturday and are expected to face charges including false imprisonment, police said yesterday.
Sabita Basdeo, 42, reported being kept against her will at the house between last year September to this month.
BRUISED: Domestic worker Sabita Basdeo was left with bruises to her face and body after being tortured, beaten and threatened while at a Penal house.
She told officers that while performing domestic duties, she was not allowed to leave to visit her family.
The woman told police she was beaten, her head banged against a wall and she was burnt about her body.
She had bruises on her body and face and her hands had marks of discolouration.
She was finally returned to her own house on Saturday.
With tears in his eyes during an interview with members of the media yesterday at their Penal Rock Road home, Basdeo’s 55-year-old husband, Krishendeo Basdeo, said he had not seen his wife for several “years”, not only months.
He said when he saw her on Saturday, she was not looking well.
He described her face as being lumpy with bruises, that she was pale and was wearing dirty clothing.
He claimed that while she was at the Penal house, pepper was rubbed on parts of her body to torture and she was made to “do all kinds of things what she not supposed to do”.
He said she was threatened that if she spoke out, she would be killed.
Basdeo said he twice attempted to visit his wife at the Penal house but that he was beaten.
He said he does odd jobs and has a kidney problem, and spoke of trying to make reports to the police about his wife, but to no avail.
He said Sabita, who hugged her two teenage sons when she saw them, will be spending some time at the hospital.
Social activist and vice president of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society Edward Moodie said yesterday he had intervened after seeing online videos.
He said what Sabita faced was not even modern day slavery but the worst possible abuse.
“These things are wrong and they should be condemned at the highest level and we as a society have to demand…that we get some justice,” Moodie said.
He said he was able to speak with Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro and the senior superintendent from the area.
He thanked Guevarro for his intervention and said while he believed there was divine intervention, the family was also in need of the support of social services.
Taken to police station
On Saturday, Sabita was taken to the Barrackpore Police Station by the two suspects.
She later identified them as the suspects who had held her against her will.
She was taken for medical treatment and the two suspects, a 38 year-old woman her 17-year-old son, were arrested.
A release from the police yesterday stated that the officers from the Barrackpore Police Station and the Southern Division Task Force responded following a report of a woman being held against her will in the Barrackpore area.
“Two suspects were arrested and a female victim rescued following a report of false imprisonment in the Southern Division yesterday…The victim and two suspects were subsequently found in the area and the victim taken to hospital for medical treatment,” police said.
The suspects, a 38-year-old Penal woman and her 17-year-old son, also of Penal, were arrested in connection with the matter, police stated.
The police’s Victim and Witness Support Unit was also involved in the case.
