A teenager who was forced to work as a nanny for a tech-savvy couple in Bengaluru was killed due to ‘mistakes’

A teenager eating chocolate on a normal day would be considered a trivial event. But 15-year-old Sumina, an orphan from Odisha, paid the price for her “perversion” with her life, police said. When she was brought to Bengaluru by a tech-savvy couple in June 2024, her job was to take care of their toddler son, even though he was a child himself. Just four months later, on September 27, her employer brutally attacked her and left her for dead in her home. The world would learn of his murder only three days later, when his body was found dumped under a bridge in Salem in neighboring Tamil Nadu.

The employers – Odisha native Abinesh Sagu (41) and Ashwini V Patil (37) – took Sumina to Bengaluru from an orphanage in Odisha run by Abinesh’s father Karthi Chandra Sagu. They made her the full-time caretaker of their four-year-old son at their home in Bhoganhalli.

Sumina’s employment was in clear violation of the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act) and the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules. Not only was she subjected to cruel mistreatment and exploitation as a “child worker,” but she was also stripped of her rights as a “teenage” worker. The orphanage also violated the law by sending him to do chores.