The United States Labour Department has directed an Indian-American head of an IT staffing company to pay her domestic worker $135,000 (around Rs 87,16,000) after an investigation found that she had mistreated her and repeatedly violated federal laws on minimum wage, PTI reported on Tuesday.

Himanshu Bhatia, the chief executive officer of Rose International and IT Staffing, has been asked to pay her former live-in domestic help Sheela Ningwal back wages and damages as per a California US District Court judgement. The verdict was based on a complaint filed by the US Labour Department in August 2016

Bhatia was accused of repeatedly violating minimum wage laws from July 2012 to December 2014, “callous abuse” and retaliation, including forcing Ningwal to sleep on a piece of carpet in the garage with her dogs when she was sick. She was also accused of confiscating Ningwal’s passport and firing her in December 2014 when she found her looking up labour laws online. Ningwal had refused to sign a document that said she was being paid an adequate salary and had no employment problems with Bhatia.