Nirmala Bonat
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonat was found sleeping naked in the guest room, a High Court heard on Monday.
Her former employer Hii Ik Tiing, 48, said that his wife Yim Pek Ha, who was jailed for hurting the maid, told him that Nirmala was found naked in the guest room.
"She (Nirmala) explained that it was hot and my wife told her not to do it anymore," he told their lead counsel Chan Vy Sing when questioned if there was any incident in which he found peculiar against her.
Asked by Nirmala's lead counsel M. Kavimani that he had known something was wrong with the maid from the beginning, Hii denied.
Questioned if sleeping naked in the guest room was not wrong, he said: "No, she may have a reason."
Asked if it was reasonable for the maid to sleep naked, he said it did not cross his mind during the period and that now, it was possible.
He disagreed to Kavimani's suggestion that he should have call the maid's recruitment agency to complain about her.
"I did not find any reason (to do so), " Hii testified in the trial of the civil suit filed by Nirmala against him and Yim for damages, claiming that she suffered pain, humiliation, physical and mental anguish while working for the couple for eight months.
In her civil suit filed on Jan 28, 2010, Nirmala, 29, is seeking for RM28,545 for loss of income and RM10,616 for other expenditures.
Asked by Chan, Hii said they had also found her sitting on the guest room's bed peeling of her scabs on her leg when she was asked to iron their daughter's school uniform.
"We found dead skin on the floor," he said.
Hii said that Yim had also told him that Nirmala liked to bang her head against the wall saying that it was to relieve her headache.
"Sometimes, we also observe that her head is swollen," he said.
He agreed to Kavimani's suggestion that sometimes he would also bang his head but not until swollen or bleeding.
He denied to a suggestion that Yim was a revengeful person as she had written in a diary over the things, which had allegedly been spoilt by Nirmala during her employment.
He disagreed that Nirmala was forced to sign in the diary admitting that she had stolen things when she was working as a maid with the couple and liable to be jailed for her "sinful acts" after the expiry of her employment.
"My wife tends to forgive and forget. We thought that there was no harm to give her another chance after she confessed that she did stuff some jewellery in a soft toy," he added.
Hii also told Chan that Yim had informed him that Nirmala had a tendency to lie of having done work when she had not.
He denied that Yim was going through a post-natal depression then, causing her to hurt Nirmala for her carelessness while doing her job.
Earlier, Judicial Commissioner Siti Khadijah S. Hassan Badjenid dismissed an application by Chan to recall Nirmala to impeach her credibility on grounds that there were many material contradictions in her evidence over her injuries.
JC Siti Khadijah, however, ruled that Chan could submit on the issue of credibility later.
Yim is currently serving her 12-year jail term for causing grevious hurt to Nirmala in 2004. The hearing continues Monday.
