Kannur ayurveda therapist's Poland dream turns sour, cops book Kerala doctor for abuse

Kannur: An ayurveda therapist, who travelled to Poland after being promised a job at an ayurveda therapy centre, has returned traumatised, accusing the centre's Malayali co-owner of cheating, physical assault and sexual harassment. The Payyannur police have registered a criminal case against him.

​The accused, Dr Vijesh M (39), a native of New Mahe who runs an ayurveda centre in Krakow, allegedly lured the woman from Kannur with a job offer but denied her a work contract after she reached there. According to the First Information Report, the incident took place between May 23 and May 26 at ‘Ayura Ayurveda’ in Poland. The complainant alleged that she was wrongfully restrained, physically assaulted, forced to perform therapy work, and compelled to massage Dr Vijesh’s male business partner. She also alleged that she was called a prostitute and sexually harassed.

​When contacted, the 38-year-old ayurveda therapist, who had previously worked in Germany and Sweden and holds Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status, revealed her ordeal to Onmanorama. 

Earlier this year, she had posted on Facebook that she was looking for work. “A Polish man named Rafal contacted me on Facebook Messenger saying he runs a therapy centre and that his Indian partner would get in touch with me,” she said.

Soon afterwards, Vijesh called. He claimed to operate ayurveda centres in Krakow and Kochi.  "He told me that they urgently needed a female therapist because the previous therapist had left without notice," she said.

The offer appeared genuine. Vijesh being a Malayali, her father and husband, a carpenter, both spoke to him. She says he sounded polite and professional, and offered Rs 1.4 lakh per month, with accommodation and food taken care of. 

“For them, too, I was a catch because they did not have to invest in my visa as I had an EU permit,” she said.

But whenever she asked for a work contract, it was delayed. "One week before leaving, my husband asked for the work contract. Vijesh said that since I was going there, they would give it after I landed," she said.

​The family trusted him. "My father is over 70 and still works as a security guard. Before leaving, I told him he could quit once I got my first salary," she said. "I left with a lot of hope."

That lasted only a few hours after she reached Poland. According to her account, Vijesh and Rafal picked her up from the railway station and drove her to a large two-storey building where the ground floor housed the therapy centre and the upper floor served as accommodation.

"He took me straight to the kitchen and told me to take care of the kitchen and keep the house clean. I was taken aback," she said, adding that before reaching there, she had been told that everyone shared household responsibilities 'like a family'.

​"But after I reached there, he talked to me as if I were a kitchen help."

She was instructed to cook meals, clean the premises and work without receiving the promised contract. "When I said I couldn't do everything alone and would need help, he would abuse me and ask why I had dragged myself all the way to Poland."

At that point, she says, she realised she was trapped. When her husband contacted Vijesh, his calls were blocked.

Feeling isolated in a foreign country, she turned to social media again.

​"I put up a Facebook post asking Malayalis in Poland to contact me and help me."

Members of an Indian association in Poland who reached out to her, advised her to leave immediately and connected her with an NGO assisting human trafficking victims. It sent three police officers to the ayurveda centre.

Even then, fear kept her from telling them everything. “The last three days I was there, I was denied food. Vijesh told me not to eat from their kitchen. I was scared of getting entangled in cases there. I just told them I could not continue with Vijesh."

The police persuaded the centre to buy her a return ticket to India. “But Vijesh threatened to track me down in Kerala,” she said.

​The ordeal did not end even after returning to Kerala. She said she was followed by three men after landing and spent nearly two hours inside a restaurant before travelling onwards to Kannur. Later, Vijesh contacted her husband and warned them against damaging his reputation, she said, adding that the financial loss was painful, the humiliation worse.

​"I lost around Rs 1 lakh. I had raised the money after pawning my jewellery. In return, there is a legal case. People in my village will come to know about it. I am humiliated.”

​The experience has pushed her to the brink. "The day after I came back, I felt like dying."

She rarely leaves home now. "When I step outside, I wear a mask. I am ashamed to face people. We had told all our relatives that I was going to Poland.”

The Payyannur police have booked Dr Vijesh under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for wrongful restraint [Section 126(2)]; voluntarily causing hurt [Section 115(2)]; using criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty [Section 74]; making sexually coloured remarks [Section 75(1)(iv)]; and cheating [Section 318(4)]. If convicted, he faces up to seven years of imprisonment.