RAIPUR: A day after nine detained migrant labourers from West Bengal set free by the police in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra claimed that they were now being “forcibly pushed into buses and sent to West Bengal”.
Moitra who questioned the state police on Monday for detaining nine migrants whom she cited as residents of her Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal, again came up with her strongly worded statements alleging that the workers are now shoved into buses by Chhattisgarh police to put them back to Bengal.
The nine men were detained by the Kondagaon police on July 12 under preventive restrictions.
“You have no right to stop free movement of people. This is completely illegal. I urged Chhattisgarh DGP to get aware of what the state police are doing. The police had (earlier) put them in illegal detention. They (labourers) are not criminals and have every right to be in any state they want to be”, she asserted in her video posted on X and tagged Chhattisgarh chief minister office and Chhattisgarh police.
In a forewarning note, the TMC MP said that the Chhattisgarh police have no right to throw these labourers outside the territory of Chhattisgarh.
“If you don’t realise it, I will take you to the court”, she said.
On the fresh allegations, Kondagaon district police chief Akshay Kumar told The New Indian Express that the workers are still there in his district.
“Who said these labourers are being forcibly sent back? How can they be stopped from working anywhere after their documents are verified? I haven’t seen her (Moitra's) arguments or videos on X-post. Anyone can speak to the contractor who brought the labourers to work for some project in Kondagaon and get their locations”, the SP said.
In her video on X-handle, the TMC leader stated that these nine labourers had gone to Kondagaon with a contractor with proper verification and documentation.