KUALA LUMPUR: An Indian maid has been discovered dead in Malaysia's Penang state in what police have initially said is a suicide. However, the 25-year-old maid was found with 90 percent burns on her body and police said they have not ruled out foul play. Ratwinder Kaur from Punjab was found dead in a shared storeroom of an apartment block, a few meters from the 18th floor apartment unit where she had worked in George Town area, police said. She was said to have started work with her Malaysian employers, a bank manager and a school teacher, about two months ago. A police official said they had received a distress call at about 9.50 am local time on Thursday from one of the employers and found a matchbox and a bottle with oil residue near the body. “There are no signs of struggle in the apartment or the storeroom. Nothing was taken from the apartment as well,” the official said. He added that police were still waiting for the post-mortem report to determine whether the victim had consumed anything. “She told her employers that she missed her family in India and wanted to go home,” he said. Violence against maids is common for Indian and Malaysians, however, the vast majority of violence perpetrated against them occurs when they travel to the Arab Gulf region, where poor regulations lax government oversight allow couples to take advantage of young women from Asia.
