AURANGABAD: Eleven labourers engaged in well digging work and kept chained by contractors to prevent them from escaping have been rescued by police in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district, an official said on Tuesday.
After being freed on Saturday, the labourers narrated their ordeal saying they were made to work 12 hours daily, not paid any money for the work, provided food just once a day and forced to answer nature's call in the well itself where they worked, he said.
The police have so far arrested four persons, including two contractors, in this connection, the official said.
The labourers were deployed by contractors two three months back for well digging work in Khamaswadi and Wakharwadi villages under Dhoki police station limits in Osmanabad where they were wrongfully confined and tortured, assistant police inspector Jagdish Raut told PTI.
One of the labourers had managed to escape and reached his native place in the Hingoli district where he informed the local police about the torture, he said.
The Hingoli police contacted their counterparts at Dhoki in Osmanabad on Saturday and teams were formed to conduct checks at the specified site.
"When a police team reached Wakharwadi village, it found five labourers working in a well.
When they were questioned, they informed that they were made to work for 12 hours every day and tied with chains during the night so that they don't escape," Raut said.
The five labourers were subsequently rescued, he said. They informed that six more labourers were working in the nearby Khamaswadi village and they were also in a similar situation, he said.
"When we questioned the labourers, they said they were given food just once a day and forced to answer nature's call in the well itself. Later, the human waste was sent up to the surface in a basket. The labourers were sent into the well at around 7 am every day and taken out after 12 hours of work," Raut said.
All the 11 rescued labourers were provided medical treatment and a procedure was underway to send them home, he said. "We are now looking at the human trafficking angle into this and two police teams are working on it. We have come to know about a few more agents who have been selling such labourers to contractors," the official said.
"The contractors did not pay a single rupee to the labourers and harassed them mentally. After making a labourer work under such conditions for four-five months, he used to be released. The labourer would then run away without asking for the money to escape the torture," the official said. The police on Sunday arrested four persons, including contractors Santosh Jadhav and Krushna Shinde, he said.
A case has been registered against the accused under Indian Penal Code Sections 370 (trafficking of persons), 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject a person to grievous hurt, slavery, etc), 346 (wrongful confinement in secret) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), he added.