14 migrant workers from Bihar rescued in Karnataka

Fourteen migrant workers from Bihar’s West Champaran district, rescued from Karnataka’s Belagavi district earlier this week, reached their homes on Thursday, officials familiar with the matter said.

Fourteen migrant workers from Bihar’s West Champaran district, rescued from Karnataka’s Belagavi district earlier this week, reached their homes on Thursday, officials familiar with the matter said.

Police said that the 14 Bihar labourers worked at sugarcane fields in Kanahapur village in Karnataka. (Picture for representation)

“We had been working in an agriculture farm in Karnataka for quite sometime. However, when we wanted to visit home for Holi, our employers refused to let us go, saying the middleman who sent us there had taken over ₹7 lakh from them,” Rajesh Ram, one of the workers and a resident of Bhathohiya Tola under Valmikinagar police station, told reporters as they alighted from train at Bagaha station.

The workers identified the middleman as one Suresh Yadav, a resident of Nandi Bhauji village under Valmikinagar police station.

AP Pathak, a Delhi-based social activist and retired senior official of union transport ministry who was approached for help by family members of the stranded labourers, said the Karnataka police swung into action immediately after being contacted. “Within a few hours, news of their rescue arrived,” said Pathak.

When contacted, Laxman Nimbargi, Belagavi’s superintendent of police (SP), said the 14 labourers worked in sugarcane fields in Kanahapur village in Karnataka. “This middleman cheated both sugarcane field owners as well as the labourers. The labourers were rescued Tuesday morning and arrangement for their return journey was made after we came to know about the matter,” said the SP.

The family members of the aggrieved labourers are in the process of filing a police complaint against the middleman, who is at large.