By IANS,
Ranchi: labourers from Jharkhand were branded as Maoists, beaten up and held hostage by villagers in Tamil Nadu before they managed to escape earlier this week. The incident came to light Wednesday when a victim’s statement appeared in a newspaper.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda said he had no details about the incident, but assured to look into the matter.
“It was a harrowing time for us. We were beaten up black and blue and an rod was thrust into my leg. They (villagers) mistook us for Maoists and charged that we had gone there for doing a recee of the village,” a newspaper quoted Ghashi Ram Hansda, a victim, as saying.
The labourers, belonging to Bhadukocha village of East Singhbhum district, are
undergoing treatment at a hospital in Jamshedpur.
They were taken to the village situated near Chennai in the last week of April for work by a middleman and held hostage for nearly three weeks, Hansda told the newspaper.
The victims were kept in a room for more than 15 days and not given food, he said.