A woman and her 1-year-old child are safe after Florida deputies said they were held as prisoners in their Tampa-area home. That woman’s husband and his parents are in jail, accused of beating her and holding a knife to her throat.
“It really is heartbreaking, there’s a brand new baby, but who beats their wife up and has his mother and dad help him? Who does that?” one neighbor, who doesn’t want to be named, said.
Questions and concern are swirling in the Riverview area of Hillsborough County where the incident occurred.
“Awful, nobody should go through that, nobody, I don’t care who you are,” that neighbor said.
The discovery started with a welfare check. Deputies said the woman called her parents in India, telling them her husband and his parents were beating her.
A deputy knocked on the door early Saturday morning, and no one came to the door. One deputy continued to knock. The woman tried to open the door, screaming for the deputy to save her and her child. The woman’s husband and his parents all confronted the deputy. Now the woman’s husband, Devbir Kalsi, and his parents, Jasvir and Bhupinder Kalsi, are all behind bars.
Devbir Kalsi, 33, is charged with false imprisonment, felony battery, child abuse and denying access to 911. Jasbir Kalsi, 67, is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (knife), false imprisonment, child abuse, and denying access to 911. Bhupinder Kalsi, 61, is charged with battery domestic violence and failure to report child abuse.
“I’m sad and scared at the same time, and I’m upset that this was all going on across the street from me and I never knew,” neighbor Stephanie Payne said.
Deputies said Devbir Kalsi told his parents his wife was being disobedient and they came here from India to discipline her. Deputies said, in addition to the beatings, Devbir’s parents held the woman and her child against their will, held a knife to the woman’s throat, and wouldn’t let her call 911.
“Gosh I almost wish I could say sorry to her, for not knowing what was going on and not being there to help her,” Payne said.
Deputies said the woman has bruises all over and has been badly beaten over an extended period of time. Her daughter seems to be unharmed.
“I’ll make sure that nothing happens to her, if I can help it, nothing will happen, I’m going to watch the house,” a neighbor said.
That woman and her child are now in a safe place, away from the house. ICE has been notified about the Kalsi’s, who are all foreign nationals of India.