Bihar teen forced into bonded labour, walked 150 km with severed arm: Cops lodge FIR

The boy had left his home in Bihar’s Kishanganj in April, along with a few friends, in the hope of landing a decent job. They headed to Bahadurgarh in Haryana.

Their search, however, proved unsuccessful. His family said the boy then went to Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Nothing worked out there either, and he didn’t have money left for a ticket back home.

The boy’s father, in the FIR, stated that he then went to Kangra on May 27 to bring him back by train.

On the evening of May 29, as per the FIR, the train halted at Bahadurgarh station. His son got down to have water — but didn’t make it back on time, said the father.

Eventually, a man at the station spotted the boy and offered him a job at a dairy farm. However, the teen was allegedly forced into harsh labour.

The teen was working a fodder chopping machine when he ended up severing his arm. The FIR alleged that instead of helping, the employer shoddily patched up the wound and eventually dumped him in a forest.

The teen then set off for home on foot. He was spotted by two teachers at Nuh — after having walked over 150 km — who took him to the police.

The police managed to contact his family. His brother arrived and took him to PGI Rohtak for treatment. His injured arm was amputated.
The father in the complaint named a man who allegedly kept his son in confinement for two months. The man’s brother, who is alleged to have assisted in holding the boy captive and was part of the abuse and neglect, is also named in the complaint.

The father also accused the man’s wife of allegedly participating in the captivity, forced labour, assault, and failure to provide medical care to the injured boy.

Further details on their identities, as well as the location of the dairy farm in question, are still not known.

The FIR invokes the BNS and Juvenile Justice Act sections relating to trafficking and abduction of a minor; causing grievous hurt using dangerous means or machinery, kidnapping and wrongful confinement; forced or bonded labour and exploitation of a minor; assault and cruelty towards a minor; negligence; criminal intimidation by threats; and criminal acts done by multiple accused with common intention.

Speaking to The Indian Express last week, the boy’s elder brother recalled the ordeal as narrated to him by his brother.

“His tasks (at the farm) included tending buffaloes and cows, cleaning animal waste, and other gruelling farm work. He was given only a few rotis to survive each day and faced brutal beatings for minor mistakes. Once, they thrashed him so badly for a small mistake — it left him unconscious, bleeding from a blow to his forehead.”
“Hamaare bhai ki tu zindagi kharab nahi ho gayi? Poori umr aise ek haath ke baghair, kaise hoga uska? Hum log nyay chahte hain. (Our brother’s life is ruined. How will he live without one hand? We want justice,” the brother had said.

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