Ludhiana: Brick kiln owner held for threatening executive magistrate

The accused snatched documents from the labourer inspector Ram Singh Rana accompanying the executive magistrate and assaulted the labourers who were recording their statement with the official, police said

A man was arrested for allegedly threatening and abusing an executive magistrate who had gone to rescue bonded labourers ‘confined’ at a brick kiln, owned by the accused, in Haidon village in Samrala, police said on Friday.

A woman labourer rescued from the brick kiln undergoing treatment at the Samrala civil hospital on Friday. (HT Photo)

The accused snatched documents from the labourer inspector Ram Singh Rana accompanying the executive magistrate and assaulted the labourers who were recording their statement with the official, police said.

The Samrala Police lodged an FIR against the accused, Ramesh Khullar, of Haidon village and arrested him.

The FIR was filed on the statement of naib tehsildar Harminder Singh Cheema, who was assigned the duty of an executive magistrate to rescue bonded labourers from a brick kiln in the village.

He along with labourer inspector Rana and other officers reached the brick kiln and started investigation. When they began recording the statements of the labourers, the brick kiln owner came there and started abusing them.

He said that the accused threatened them and snatched the government documents from the inspector. The accused also assaulted the labourers who were recording their statements to them. Later, they called the police and filed a complaint.

Cheema stated that the rescued labourers alleged that the brick kiln owner was not paying them salary and forced them to work. When they used to ask for money, the brick kiln owner threatened them.

Cheema added that one of the women labourers was found to be sick. He alleged that the brick kiln owner neither gave her money nor took her to hospital for the treatment.