A Melbourne couple accused of keeping an illegal immigrant from India as a slave watched as one the alleged victims’ family member revealed new information about the case.
It is alleged that Srilankan-origin couple Kandasamy Kannan and his wife Kumuthini kept an Indian woman as a ‘slave’ at their home in Mount Waverley in Melbourne for eight years.
The couple has been accused of possessing a slave brought illegally from India, harbouring an unlawful citizen and exercising ownership after the Indian woman was found emaciated and lying in her own urine by paramedics in 2015.
News.com.au reports the couple appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a committal hearing on Wednesday where the alleged victims’ son-in-law told via a video link that he was offered money and the safe return of his mother-in-law in exchange for withdrawing a letter of complaint sent to Australia’s High Commissioner.
“This is a petition asking my mother-in-law to be returned,” the family member said through an interpreter.
“They said they’d give me money ... I told them you can keep money and bring her back here.”
The court also heard that the Indian woman lost touch with her family in India after her “cellphone got lost” during the first year she was living with the Kannans.
“We don’t have her number,” the son-in-law told the court.
The alleged victim was brought from India in 2007 on a tourist visa to perform domestic duties for the Kannans.
She has alleged she was kicked and slapped, had boiling water poured over her legs and face, was cut with a knife and, at one time, beaten with a frozen chicken.
The court heard on Wednesday that Kannans sent number of cheques to her family.
“Since my mother-in-law went, I have received four cheques from (the Kannans),” the alleged victim’s son-in-law said. In total, the family received 60,000 Indian rupees ($A1191), the court heard.
“Apart from these cheques, did anyone else receive money from the Kannans?” their lawyer asked.
The alleged victims’ son-in-law responded: “No”.
Police have alleged the 50-year-old woman was locked up inside the house each January when the family went on their annual holiday to India.
The couple has been released on bail and will return to court later this month.
