Ashoknagar (MP), Feb 5 (PTI) Twelve labourers from Madhya Pradesh who were held captive in a coffee plantation in Karnataka after their contractor escaped with an advance payment of Rs 90,000 have been rescued, an official said on Wednesday. All the labourers belong to the Ashoknagar district, he said.
Acting on a complaint to Superintendent of Police Vineet Jain on January 30, a team of MP police visited Karnataka’s Chikmagalur district. They first tracked down the labourers who were confined to a coffee plantation, the official said.
“After tracing the location of the labourers, we contacted Jayapura police station in Chikmagalur district and with the help of local cops, 12 labourers were rescued and brought back to MP,” Ashoknagar police station in-charge Manish Sharma said.
The contractor, identified as Afsar Ali, was later nabbed and brought to Ashoknagar. A court has remanded him in judicial custody, the official said.
Ali allegedly took the labourers to Karnataka by taking an advance payment of Rs 90,000 from the management of the coffee plantation. However, he escaped from there.
The persons were working somewhat like bonded labourers, the SP said. Some more individuals are also working there in the same manner and police are investigating the case, he added. PTI COR MAS NR