Mumbai: NGO owner thrashes staffer over low donation collection

Priscilla Immanuel (in blue) with social worker Shweta Ambevle. Pic/Hanif Patel

The Tulinj police in Nalasopara on Tuesday arrested a 25-year-old child health care employer for allegedly beating up his physically-challenged woman employee as her cash collection for the NGO was a lot less than that of the other employees. He also accused her of stealing from the donation amount, snatched her phone and locked her in his office.

According to police sources, the arrested accused has been identified as Aman Pandey, who runs a finance firm as well as a franchise of 'Child Help Foundation'. The girl has been identified as Priscilla Immanuel who lives with her parents in Vasai East. Her father is a retired engineer, her mother is a housewife while her elder sister is a nurse with a reputable hospital in Mumbai.

On Monday, around 9 pm, while the girl returned to the office to hand over the day's collection, Pandey started scolding her for her low earnings. He then picked up a hockey stick and beat her up badly. He finally allowed her to leave the office around 11 pm.

The girl told her parents about the thrashing, who sought the help of a social worker Shreya Ambevle. She took them to the Tulinj police station and registered a complaint. An officer from Tulinj police station said Pandey had been remanded in police custody by the court.

Ambevle said Pandey runs a finance business and had hired several poor and needy youth to sell SIM cards of various cellular companies. A few days later, he started forcing them to collect donations for the NGO he was running, saying he would not pay them their salaries otherwise.

Immanuel had started working for Pandey just 16 days ago and four days ago, he had forced her to start collecting donations. Immanuel had collected Rs 2,000 on the first day, Rs 1,500 on the second and Rs 1,000 on the third day. On Monday, when her collection was a lot less, Pandey flew into a rage.

Speaking with mid-day, one of the founder members of the NGO, Rajendra Pathak, said, "We have given the NGO franchise to Pandey several months ago, a deed had been signed that donations had to be collected by him and not by an employee on his behalf. He has completely flouted the terms of the agreement. We will be withdrawing our NGO franchise from him."

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