KATHMANDU: Twenty-year-old Sita Khadgi (name changed), hailing from Godavari in Lalitpur, was struggling to hold her tears back as she recounted a harrowing tale of a Nepali housemaid in the Persian Gulf.

She presented an account of the torture that she experienced at the hands of her Kuwaiti housemaster and mistress. “They tortured me mentally as well as physically. I was virtually confined for nine months before I fled,” sobbed Sita, who managed to break herself free on January 11. She said the Kuwaitis hurled at her whatever came their way. On the allegation that she did not respect the couple, the latter burned her right hand with an electric iron.

“Time and time again, they attempted to strangulate me, beat me with kitchen utensils and burned my body with a sizzling knife,” she explained at the Maiti Nepal in the presence of mediapersons and her parents. Her head and eyes looked swollen and bruises persisted as an impact of the extreme physical torture.

“Once the housemaster tried to gouge my left eye out, but left me alone after I protested. She flew to Kuwait on 25 March, 2009 via Mumbai on her own accord in quest of a better future. Lured by a lucrative job, she paid Rs 35,000 to Aaiti Tamang, an agent. None of her dreams came true in the foreign land. She was assured of a job that earned her Rs 10,000 per month. “I came back home empty-handed. The employer denied the salary. I owe a friend Rs 35,000 for no apparent reason,” she said in a fit of remorse. She was rescued by the Nepali Embassy in Kuwait in association with Maiti Nepal, to be sent back home yesterday. Shankha Ratna Khadgi and his wife Ganga forced a smile amid tears upon reunion with their daughter.

“We repeatedly asked her not to go a foreign land but to continue her study. She fled home then only to go through all the ordeal,” said Shankha Ratna. Sita has passed the tenth grade.

“Let bygones be bygones. I will follow every single piece of advice of my parents henceforth,” she sighed.