Nabarangpur: Four labourers from Nabarangpur district, who had gone to work in Tamil Nadu, are being held captive there by a contractor, a report said. The matter came out after the families of the victims lodged a police complaint and approached the district labour department.
The victims are Padu Majhi (18), Lachman Majhi (19), Banamali Lumata (30) and Chaitanya Mali (19) of Budiaguda village in Papdahandi block.
According to the complaint, a middleman, Somnath Mali, lured 10 youths of the village promising good wages to Tamil Nadu two months back.
He later handed over the youths to another person named Sabram Harijan of Chatali village in Raighar police limits, who took them to Tamil Nadu and deployed them for drilling bore-wells.
Although the workers were promised high wages, accommodation and food, the bore-well contractor made them work extra hours without pay, and also tortured them mentally and physically.
Even after two months they were not paid. Their employer assaulted and threatened them when they asked for salaries.
Fearing for their lives, the workers continued to work for the contractor. Later, six youths managed to escape and returned to their village, while four are being held captive.
The contractor claimed that he had paid all the money to middlemen Somnath Mali and Sabram Harijan.
After the escaped youths narrated their ordeal in the village, the families of the captive labourers approached the two middlemen to bring back the other youths. However, the two misbehaved with the families and the victims’ kin approached the police.
Migrant labourers working in brick kilns are subjected to inhuman torture in neighbouring states. Earlier, an incident in which acid was hurled on a migrant worker was reported. In another case, an employer cut off the fingers of a worker after he demanded salary.
PNN
