The police have arrested a man in Penang for allegedly torturing his 19-year-old worker, reports said today.

Indian national Sonia Sharma, 19, said she was locked up, stripped naked, kicked, punched and beaten with a piece of wood by her 37-year-old employer who accused her of stealing RM40,000, according to the New Straits Times .

He also cut her forehead, face and arms, and burnt her with a cigarette butt, the paper said. It carried a picture of the victim with a black eye and bruises on her body.

Sharma, a part-time worker at a mobile phone shop, had quit her job when her employer accused her of stealing the money. Three days later, on March 10, the man demanded to see her.

"When I went into the shop, he locked the door immediately, before (alleging) that I had stolen RM40,000 from his shop," she was quoted as saying by the Star .

"I denied stealing the money and told him the accounts were in order while I was working there. He threatened to kill my whole family if I did not return the money," she said.

Strip naked

He then ordered her to strip naked and when she refused, tried to suffocate her. She passed out and when she regained consciousness, she found herself naked, she said.

Sharma managed to escape the following day when her employer was asleep and lodged a police report.

Northeast police chief Hamzah Mohamad Jamil said police arrested the alleged perpetrator the same night. They also found the victim's bloodstained clothes.

If convicted, the man can be jailed for a maximum of three years and fined, the New Straits Times said.