Couple jailed for repeatedly abusing maid, prompting her to escape through 4th-floor window

• 21 months’ jail for Farha Tehseen who hit, slapped and punched the maid
• She tried to cast aspersions on the maid’s integrity, saying she smelled like cow dung
• 4 months’ jail for Farha’s husband Mohammad Tasleem, who punched and kicked the maid
• He made multiple attempts to cover up the crime through witness tampering

SINGAPORE — A couple who repeatedly assaulted their domestic helper over two months in 2016 were sentenced to jail on Friday (Aug 21).

The abuse prompted the maid, Indian national Amandeep Kaur, to escape through the  living-room window of their fourth-storey Sengkang flat and sit on a ledge. 

The female employer, Farha Tehseen, 39, was jailed 21 months and ordered to compensate the helper S$4,500. She was convicted of 10 charges of causing hurt and criminal intimidation.

Among other abuses, she was found guilty of using a pair of heated tongs to hit Ms Kaur’s arm, striking her with a rolling pin and broomstick, and punching her face.

Her husband, Mohammad Tasleem, 41, was jailed four months and ordered to pay S$1,000 in compensation. He was convicted of punching Ms Kaur, then 27, once in her eye and kicking her twice around her waist area.

The couple are Singapore permanent residents. 

While Tasleem’s role in the abuse was not as serious as his wife’s, the prosecution urged the court to impose the four-month jail sentence because he made multiple attempts to cover up the crime through witness tampering. 

Once, he met Ms Kaur after investigations began, and offered her money and help for her brothers to find employment in India. This was an attempt to get her to retract all allegations against him and his wife.

Then, the prosecution said that he had told her: “We will give you money if you go into court to tell them that you fell in the bathroom and then that’s how you got your injuries.”

Ms Kaur declined his offer, saying that she would speak only the truth.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Houston Johannus said that Tasleem almost succeeded on his second try.

After constant pestering by her agent Neelam, who is the maid’s cousin, Ms Kaur wrote a letter that was intended to exonerate the couple. Neelam dictated the contents of the letter to her over the phone.

Tasleem collected the letter from Ms Kaur outside a Sikh temple in Yishun, where she was seeking shelter.

Neelam told Ms Kaur that Tasleem would mail the letter to the authorities, but the letter was ultimately sent to the couple’s residential address. 

Tasleem’s plan was to submit the letter as evidence to damage Ms Kaur’s credibility, DPP Johannus said.

“We urge this court to see through Tasleem’s charade,” he added. 

“This letter incident reveals an elaborate scheme cooked up between Neelam and Tasleem, in order to coerce (Ms Kaur) to meet him and hand him a letter whose contents falsely exonerate both accused persons for abusing (her).”

DPP Johannus also said that Tasleem did not pay off Ms Kaur for writing the letter, as he had promised.

As for Farha, DPP Johannus sought a sentence of at least 24 months’ jail, noting her “repugnant” conduct during the trial.

He said Farha had cast aspersions on Ms Kaur’s integrity by hurling “spurious” accusations at her. These included saying that Ms Kaur smelled like cow dung and that the maid had deliberately ill-treated one of their two young sons.

DPP Johannus said that Farha had also taken “ludicrous” positions to buttress her defence. For instance, Farha said that it was not dangerous for Ms Kaur to be positioned on the window ledge and even claimed that Ms Kaur would be comfortable sitting there.

Another instance was Farha’s “fanciful theory” that the marks on Ms Kaur’s body indicated uneven skin colour or marks that she had picked up while working at a farm in India.

THE COUPLE’S ABUSES

The court previously heard that Ms Kaur tried to escape two months after she began working for the couple on Nov 9, 2016.

During their trial, she testified that the couple were frustrated and angry with her, as they thought she performed poorly at work and had a bad attitude.

She said Farha, in particular, treated her badly from the start. 

When asked why she was being punished, Farha would reply: “I am the one who called for you to come here. I can do whatever I wish onto you.”

Farha also accused her of having an affair with Tasleem.

On her first day of employment, Farha had already slapped and punched her.

On two other occasions in November 2016, Farha struck her with a pair of heated tongs when the helper was making chapati (flat bread).

On Dec 31, 2016, Farha kicked Ms Kaur’s back, grabbed her hair and punched her nose. She also took a toy stick to hit Ms Kaur’s calves several times.

Farha then told Ms Kaur to complete her chores in five minutes and threatened to throw her out the window if she failed to do so. 

She told Ms Kaur that if anyone asked, she would tell them that Ms Kaur’s “mental state of mind was not good” and that she had jumped. 

The couple then left the flat with their two children.

Ms Kaur escaped through a window that day “in a moment of utter terror and desperation”, DPP Johannus said. 

A couple spotted her crying while perched on the window ledge. With the help of workers doing paintwork nearby, they rescued Ms Kaur using a gondola lift. 

For each charge of causing hurt, the couple could have been jailed up to two years or fined up to S$5,000, or received both penalties.

For criminal intimidation, Farha could have been put behind bars for up to two years or fined, or given both punishments.

The couple’s lawyer, Mr Peter Keith Fernando, told TODAY that the couple intends to appeal against their conviction and sentence.