Woman testifies she was slave to husband's family

The signs of trouble were present even before she got married. Her groom threatened to leave at the start of the wedding, and her in-laws taunted her about the arrangements and gifts as soon as the ceremony was over.

But the young woman, who grew up in a traditional home in northwestern India and left for Ramapo after an arranged marriage to Vishal Jagota of 28 Butternut Drive, still believed she could have a happy life in America.

What ensued, however, was almost three years of abuse, the young woman testified in a labor trafficking and sex abuse case being prosecuted by the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office before Judge William Nelson in New City. Her name is being withheld by The Journal News because she is an alleged victim of sex abuse.

The woman described  beatings, abuse and hours of backbreaking work she had to endure during the years she spent in the home of the multigenerational Jagota household, which included eight adults and two children.

“They called me a kaamwali,” she told Nelson, using the Hindi word that loosely translates into “servant.” “For them I am a slave. I have to do everything.”

She described her daily chores, which began at 6 a.m. and continued until about 11 p.m. daily. She said her mother-in-law gave her a list of work to complete, which included cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and ferrying food, snacks and tea to all family members on three floors of the house. No other member of the house helped, she testified.

When she didn’t complete the work on time, or it wasn’t to their satisfaction, she testified, she was slapped and beaten, choked, dragged by her hair through the house, and in one instance  burned by a hot iron by her mother-in-law, in another bitten on the cheek by her husband. Some of these alleged incidents took place in front of her young daughter, she said.

n addition, her jewelry and travel documents were taken away by her mother-in-law, she had no cell phone or money, and her calls from the phone was monitored, she said, and she was not allowed to meet her relatives without being chaperoned.

She told the court that the first time she met her future husband, he stood at a train station in northern India, surrounded by his family and hundreds of strangers who milled around on the railway platform. About 10 days later, she became his  wife.

The woman said she did not tell anyone of the alleged abuse she was experiencing because she was afraid she would be divorced by her husband, and her life and the life of her daughter would be ruined. Divorce still carries a stigma in India, especially for a woman, and the fear keeps many from reporting abuse.