Maid reports relative of boss to police for shooting
The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A 19-year-old domestic filed a complaint with the Bandung Police on Monday against her boss, whom she accused of shooting her with an air rifle. The police immediately detained the suspect.
When reporting the case to the police, Siti Mudalimah showed injuries to her left arm and face. She said she had been shot with the air rifle by Adhy Fitaryadi, 33, earlier on Monday.
Siti, who has been working for almost five months at Adhy's home on Jl. Sumarsana in Bandung, West Java, said she never expected that she would be shot at.
"I just wanted to sweep up in front of Mas Adhy. But suddenly he got angry though I said 'excuse me'. I continued to clean the floor but he started beating me while shouting, 'Don't try to push me'," Siti told a detective at the Central Bandung police station.
At the time of the incident, Adhy, a resident of Jagakarsa, South Jakarta, was staying overnight, along with his parents, at the home of his grandmother in Bandung. Adhy and his parents arrived on Friday to attend the wedding of a relative.
The victim had previously met Adhy some two months ago at the same place, and considered him to be polite.
After being beaten on Monday morning, Siti was told by Adhy's mother to take refuge at a friend's home nearby. But when packing her clothes, Adhy came into Siti's bedroom with an air rifle and shot her.
Adhy only stopped firing after his mother intervened to protect Siti.
"I later ran out through the back door to my friend's house when I saw Mas Adhy was watching television," Siti said.
Local police detectives chief, First Insp. Edi Suwandim, said Adhy was arrested later on Monday for questioning. The police had seized the weapon allegedly used to shot Siti as evidence.
The police also took the victim for a medical examination to the Santo Yusuf Hospital in Bandung.
Edi said the police charged the suspect under Article 351 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of seven-years imprisonment.
Suhartono, who is Adhy's father, said his son has been suffering from "inflammation of the cerebral membrane" and was seeing nerve specialist Dr. Kusumayanto in Jakarta regularly.
"Despite this statement, we will continue to process the abuse case legally and will probably have the suspect's mental condition examined," Edi added.
Cases of abuse against domestics by their employers are commonplace across the country due partly to the lack of protection afforded to them.
Indonesian maids also frequently fall victim to violence when working abroad in countries such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.