105 stowaways inside a container truck rescued

Vadodara/ Anand: Anand police on Wednesday stopped a container truck fitted with a poster ‘Emergency duty for medical supply under Essential Commodity Act’ after they became suspicious seeing its movements. The cops were thrown aback to discover more than 100 migrant workers crammed perilously inside the container.
“All the 105 migrant labourers are natives of Uttar Pradesh and were travelling from Rajkot,” police said.
“Cops intercepted the truck near Lingda village in Umreth taluka, to check permission, after it was spotted trying to bypass checking. They found it did not carry any valid permit and was also misusing the permit given to vehicles carrying essential commodities only,” said Anand district superintendent of police Ajit Rajian.
“Our team had doubts on the movement of this container when they saw it trying to enter from Samarkha crossroads, but reversed the vehicle when the driver spotted police checking there and tried to enter from Umreth. Our officials immediately guessed something wrong with the container and finally stopped it at Lingda where a team was already keeping vigil,” Rajian added.
Inspector general of Ahmedabad Range, D B Vaghela, said that the passengers were crammed in the truck so tightly that they could not even move.
“Three children had already fainted. All 105 passengers who were travelling to their hometown in the mini truck from Rajkot were medically checked and sent to a shelter home while the driver of the truck, Amrutlal Yadav of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh was also sent for Covid-19 test before being arrested,” he said.
Cops booked the driver Amrutlal Yadav, a native of Jaunpur district of UP, for cheating and violation of the Disaster Management Act. The migrants were charged between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 for returning to their home state amid the lockdown.
Cops are trying to understand why the labourers chose such a risky travel mode when shramik special trains have already started for the labourers.
“While investigations are on, arrangements for return of these migrant workers to Rajkot are being done by the respective collectors,” Rajian added.