But, the social evil seems to have found its way back into the metropolis, as Revenue Department officials rescued 11 people, including 7 minors, all from Varanasi, UP, from a pani puri making unit on Avadanam Papaiya Road in Choolai, on Saturday.

“One of the bonded labours, aged 40, had managed to flee to Varanasi recently. He immediately approached an NGO there and narrated the tales of horror that he and other inmates were subjected to at the unit. The NGO lost no time in contacting us and we rescued 11 of them,” R Rajendran, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), North Chennai, said.

The father-son duo Munna Lal (52) and Rahul (26), owners of the pani puri unit,  had allegedly bought the rescued labourers from Varanasi by paying Rs 10,000 each to their families. They are from Jaunpur district.

 

“For the past one year, the 11 people would be given one single meal a day and they were not allowed to exit the gate. They worked and stayed in the same building without wage,” M Raja, an advocate, who helped the officials in their rescue, said.

The Department has issued release certificates to all the rescued labourers and they would be sent back to Varanasi.

The police said that the Revenue Department has filed a complaint with Seven Wells police station and a case has been registered. However, they are yet to arrest the owners of the pani puri making unit.

Meanwhile, Sharon Jabez of International Justice Mission (IJM) said that the NGO had conducted 90 rescues during 2016-2018, of which 24 rescues were from food and agro-based industries. “In 2017, a Virudhunagar boy was rescued from Egmore. 

He was being trafficked to Bihar to work in a confectionary unit. We have also rescued boys from confectionary making units in Nasik and Bombay,” Sharon added.

The State government, along with various NGOs, had conducted 220 rescues from January 2013 to September 2018 across Tamil Nadu and rescued 5,149 bonded labourers from brick kiln industries, confectionary making industries and others.