Viral photo: Dalit labourer held captive sans food, water for 31 hours in Rajasthan's Bundi

KOTA: Six days after a 35-year-old labourer lodged a report of abduction, torture and being held captive for 31 hours in cattleshed in a village under Talera police station of Bundi, the six accused are still on the run. Police teams are conducting raids at suspected locations.
The labourer identified as Radheyshyam Meghwal, a resident of Biluba village under Talera police station, on Tuesday (May 24) lodged a report against Paramjit Singh, landlord and resident of Alfa Nagar village, his brother and four others. He alleged the accused had abducted him from a tea stall in Bharta Bawadi village around 11am on May 22 and taken him to Paramjit’s home in Alfa Nagar, where he tied him with chain in cattleshed. He thrashed and tortured the victim by not giving food or water for nearly 31 hours till he was freed by his younger brother on Tuesday. The accused landlord thrashed him mercilessly with iron rods, he alleged. The Dalit victim stated that Paramjit had hired him with an advance payment of Rs 70,000 to work in his farmhouse around three years ago. Later, he borrowed Rs 30,000 on interest from him for the marriage his younger sister. But after six months, he quit work at Paramjit’s farmhouse due illness caused by hard labor. Though he repaid Rs 50,000 in two installments of Rs 25,000 each and laboured at his farmhouse for 10 days without payment, he failed to repay the remaining amount with 3% interest rate.
Mounting pressure to repay the amount, which Paramjit calculated to Rs 1,10,000, he (landlord Paramjit) along with his younger brother and four others abducted him on last Sunday.
The victim said that when his brother Ravishankar came to know of his abduction on Monday, he reached Paramjit’s farmhouse, who asked him to pay Rs 1,10,000 to free his brother. In the meanwhile, another landlord of the area Sanjay Choudhary agreed to hire the victim at his farmhouse with an advance payment of Rs 75,000 to victim’s brother. Ravishankar paid Rs 46,000 to Paramjit and got Radheyshyam freed on Tuesday afternoon. tnn