I-T officer gets 1-year RI for assaulting maid

Additional Sessions Judge SS Joshi on Wednesday convicted Shaukat Ali for assaulting his fourteen-year-old maid, Zarina Ramzan in 2006 and acquitted him of the charges of raping her and outraging her modesty.

Ali was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for slapping Zarina. “I will have to study the judgment after I receive it before I decide whether to appeal against the acquittal,” said prosecutor, Usha Kiran Makasare.

Ali, an income tax officer lived with his wife and two children at ‘Tarapur Towers’, Andheri, west. In 2004, the family had employed a cook,  Fatima and was looking for a maid. On the recommendation of a friend they employed Zarina who had recently arrived from 24 Pagans (near Calcutta) in search of employment.

Zarina complained to the Andheri police on January 23, 2006 that Ali had repeatedly raped her and had beat her into submission. The first time Ali raped her, she alleged that he came and slept next to her, began to kiss her and then raped her despite her protests.

He threatened her into keeping the liaison a secret from his air hostess wife, Shaheen.
After being repeatedly raped over a period of almost two months, she decided
to quit her job but had nowhere to go. A lady named Deepa found her standing
on the road and took her to a remand home.

Zarina filed her complaint from the remand home where she is still staying, as her father refused to accept her back in the family home.