Kanpur: Brother of Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal faced a charge of torture in a police complaint lodged by two minor girls on Wednesday.

Circle officer (CO) of Cantonment police station D Singh said that the girls aged around 16, are from Jharkhand and were working as maids at Pramod Jaiswal's residence at Chakeri. The maids — Poonam and Asrita — also accused Jaiswal of not granting them permission to return to their native places in Jharkhand. Asrita belongs to Gumla district of Jharkhand while Poonam is a resident of Ranchi.

They fled from Jaiswal's house today and came to the Chakeri police station with the complaint that Jaiswal was regularly beating them and never allowed them to go home.

An FIR has not been lodged as the girls are illiterate, but an investigation based on the complaint will be done after their parents, who have been informed about the incident, arrive, the CO said.

Meanwhile, the girls have been kept in the women protection cell, he said.

In their complaint to the police the duo have said that they were employed on a salary of Rs 2,000 per month and have not been given a single penny till date.

One from Gumla district of Jharkhand has been working at Jaiswal's place for the past one year while the other from the state capital Ranchi, joined a month back.