Nepalese laborers held hostage in Punjab, one dead
Baramzhia, Saptari – 14 people from Ramtoll located in Kanchanrup Municipality-2 Baramzhia of Saptari went to Punjab in India after Dasain. Most of them belong to the Dalit Chamar community and some Muslims. Locals Lakshmi Das and Inerjit Yadav would take them because they were paid 10,000 Bharu per month for drying rice.
After the death of 54-year-old Lakhan Ram, one of those who went like this on Sunday, it was revealed that they were made to work as bonded laborers and even tortured. “After returning from working from morning till late at night, my uncle died while lying in bed,” said nephew Naresh Ram. The laborers including Lakhan were employed at the Mittal Rice Cellar Mill in Samana, Punjab.
They left after Dasain and were initially taken from Baramzhia to Kunauli, the Nepal-India border which is connected to Saptari. After being taken to Nirmali in a tempo from Kunauli market in Bihar, it was kept there for 6 days. “After that, they brought a double-decker bus and loaded 180 people from different parts of Nepal,” said Pankaj Ram, one of the passengers from Baramzhia.
According to them, the inhumane treatment of the workers started from the first day of work. ‘The job was to dry the rice and put it in sacks, but they worked from 6 in the morning to 12-1 in the night,’ Pankaj said, ‘When they reached the room at 1 in the night, they would give rice sometimes with salt and sometimes with pepper. They kept the room locked at night. If we did not open the room even when we needed to urinate, we used to do it in the room while we were sleeping. If he said something, he would beat him.’ He says that from the day he started work, he was made to work for 18 hours, locked in the room, not given proper food and tortured.
After the inhuman behavior of the contractor, Munshi and other staff of the Sailor Mill, four of the group that went from Baramzhia escaped on the fifth day. “There was a 10-feet-high wall surrounding the mill, we escaped by crossing the wall through the trees, and reached the total area,” said Pankaj. Suresh Ram, Rajesh Ram and Mamtaj Mian escaped with him. When they reached the new place, they worked for 10 days but did not get paid according to their work.
They were working as laborers and returned home after receiving 1000 rupees. Suresh said, ‘1000 was spent on the way. Later, we boarded the train without a ticket, when the ticket-checking officer came, we climbed from one compartment to another and reached Darbhanga.’ From Darbhanga, the four people who had reached Zenten Kunauli crossing reached their home in Baramzhia on foot.
After them, Naresh Ram and Niraj Sheikh also fled, but they were captured nearby. ‘After that, they tortured him repeatedly for two days,’ said Devasunder Ram, who returned with Lakhan’s body, ‘he threatened to kill him if he tried to escape again.’ He said that after the four friends escaped, they were further tortured.
They did not have a good arrangement to eat and they slept in sacks. ‘Sacks to lay down and sacks to wear,’ said Devsundar, ‘It was so cold that Lakhan couldn’t get out of bed.’ Lakhan, who had fallen asleep after returning from work, died in his sleep on Sunday morning. The contractor and the mill staff had pressured him to bury him in Punjab. However, after calling Lakhan’s eldest son Badri, who had come to Kubet for employment, he said that he would complain if his father’s body was not sent to Nepal, and the mill owner agreed to send the body, said Devasunder.
Naresh has also come home along with Devsundar with the dead body. “Four people escaped within five days, two of us came with Lakhan’s body, Niraj Sheikh, Rahim Sheikh and Kishori Ram from Baramzhia are still there as hostages,” Devsunder said. Some of the rest ran away from the mill and are not in contact. According to him, the girl’s health condition is bad. His legs are swollen and there is a problem of bleeding from his mouth. ‘I have not even been allowed to contact my husband on the phone,’ said the girl’s wife, Kariyahi Devi, ‘how to get him out of there, the government had to help him.’
The deceased Lakhan is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter-in-law. An 86-year-old mother, Boukidevi, fainted immediately after the body arrived. ‘I am still alive, I had to see my son’s body,’ she said, ‘I will punish those who put my son in this condition.’
The dream of Badri, the eldest son of Lakhan, who lives in Kiriya, to go to Kuwait has ended for the time being. The youngest son has also returned from foreign employment. ‘My father was neither fed properly nor slept on time,’ Badri said, ‘Father’s death is not natural, the contractor who subjected him to labor exploitation and physical torture should be punished.’
Meanwhile, the family members of the deceased Lakhan, who had suffered torture, filed a complaint at the Kanchanpur area police office on Wednesday and demanded action against those who took them away. They filed a complaint against Inerjit Yadav of Kanchanrup-9 and Lakshmi Das of Ward No. 3. DSP Naresh Kumar Singh, Spokesperson of District Police Office Saptari, said that since the complaint has been received, more details are being ascertained.
