KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonat told the High Court here today that she did not try to avoid the hot water that was splashed on her right thigh by her former employer Yim Pek Ha.

Nirmala, 29, said this when questioned by counsel Chan Vy Sing who is representing Yim and husband Hii Ik Tiing on the third day of her civil suit hearing against them for abusing and inflicting injuries on her with an electric iron and hot water.

The plaintiff who also demonstrated before Justice Siti Khadijah S.Hassan Badjenid, how the hot water was allegedly splashed on her, said the incident happened so fast that she did not react.    

She did not agree with Chan that she had made up the hot water incident or that the injury on her right thigh was self-inflicted.

Chan: “Do you agree that the injury on your thigh could be a result of hot water being poured slowly in a sitting position?”

Nirmala: “I do not agree”. 

Chan: “I say that you had raised your pants while sitting down and poured hot water on your thigh, that’s why the injuries were only confined there?”

Nirmala: “I do not agree.”   

The mother of two boys further disagreed with Chan’s suggestion that she did not contact her family in Indonesia or the recruitment agency, because her allegations were false.

Nirmala, from Desa Tuapakas in Kota Kupang, Indonesia, claimed the couple had never given her any medicine or brought her to any clinic for treatment of her injuries.

The plaintiff who filed the suit against Yim, 46, and Hii, 48, on Jan 28, 2010, had also alleged that Yim had grazed her with a hot electric iron in January 2004.

The woman who was employed as a maid by the defendants at their residence in Villa Putera, Jalan Tun Dr Ismail here in September 2003 alleged that Hii had failed to prevent his wife from physically abusing her and sending her for treatment of the alleged injuries.

Nirmala is claiming general damages for pain and suffering, as well as special damages of more than RM40,000 for loss of income and for medical and other relief deemed fit by the court.

On October 1, 2012, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision by the High Court to convict Yim and sentence her to 12 years’ imprisonment for three counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Nirmala.

The hearing continues tomorrow. — Bernama