For the Sardas, and scores of poor deprived families from eastern India, Ashtami was entering a dream job when she left Bengal — as a domestic help in Delhi, with an assured monthly salary of up to Rs 3,000. It was more than tempting for the family to agree despite initial scepticism.

It was a smooth ride for the first year — the cheques arrived regularly from Vaishnav Placement Agency, which had taken the girl to Delhi. But suddenly, they found the cheques were bouncing.

And that’s when the lid blew off the domestic help scam, engineered by the Lado Sarai-based Vaishnav Placement Agency.

Ahstami’s is one of several cases of missing domestic helps, mostly placed by Vaishnav. In Kokata, an NGO has recorded 144 missing cases, mostly minors — Vaishnav had placed 99 of them.

Following a High Court order, police rescued 27 maids from the agency. Owners Rohit and Shyam Lal, though, are absconding after Malviya Nagar police registered nine cases against them. These include two rape cases and a molestation case, based on statements from rescued girls.

A day on, Ashtami’s father Tapan Sarda told Newsline, “We sent her to Delhi despite some anxiety because the agent was taking many girls from our village.” The agent, he said, gave them the agency’s contact number in Delhi. Since then, “despite repeated attempts, over the past few months, the agency could not tell us where Ashtami was,” Lakkhi said. “Then we started getting really worried — we came to Delhi with our agent last week but the agency owners told us off on one pretext or another.”

Hari Kolpana, the agent who brought Ashtami and 16 other girls from Kolkata, said besides these missing girls many others he had placed were sent back to Kolkata without payment.

Spread of the ‘racket’
Nirmala, 20, came to Delhi with her agent early 2006 from a small village in Kokrajhar, Assam, to support her parents and five siblings. Vaishnav, she said, placed her as a domestic help in Saket. All was well till about a year later, when her sister Phoolmani, 15, followed her.

Now it has been almost two months since Nirmala says she has seen her younger sister. “I have no idea where she is; they (Vaishnav owners) would just not tell me where she was placed.”

Mustafa Ali, an agent from Assam, said the agency could not come up with addresses of seven girls he had placed. “I placed complaints with the South Delhi DCP,” he said, “but there was no response from there, too.”

Following Kolkata NGO Sram Jivi Mahila Samiti’s writ last July, the Delhi High Court had summoned DCP (South) Anil Shukla last week to check progress of investigations. For Lakkhi and Tapan Sarda, though, the word investigation is wrapped too much in bureaucratese to elicit much hope.

‘Tamatarwala’ to big con
Prime accused Rohit Lal was a tomato vendor in Lado Sarai till about five years back. People at the market still remember him as “Ramji Lal tamtar-wala”. All that changed when he opened Vaishnav Domestic Placement Agency, with at least 2,000 helps working under him at last count.

Police sources say Rohit’s fate “changed” after brother Shyam got married in a West Bengal village — he spotted scores of unemployed villagers and soon began recruiting agents. One agent, Hari Kolpana, said: “He told me there are vast employment opportunities in Delhi for our village girls. He said each girl could earn up to Rs 3,000 a month and I could get a commission.”