Chikkamagaluru, Oct 12: In a tragic incident, as many as 14 Dalit workers were found in captivity mostly women in Chikkamagaluru’s Hunasehalli village.
A coffee estate owner and his son have been booked for allegedly torturing and keeping in captivity Dalit workers. The accused are on the run as soon as the FIR was lodged at the local police station.
Police have identified the accused as Jagadeesh Gowda and his son Thilak. All workers belong to the same village as the accused. The extent of torture was such that one of the workers, a pregnant woman, started bleeding and lost her baby, said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against the father-son duo at the Balehonnur police station on Monday under Sections 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), and 342 (Punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides Section 3(1) (Punishments for offences of atrocities) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, a senior police officer said.
“They have been accused of forcibly locking up several workers, mostly women, in their staff quarters. Both the father and the son are absconding” said the officer.
Meanwhile, a video surfaced on social media on Tuesday purportedly showing the woman who lost her pregnancy due to the torture narrating her ordeal.
In the FIR, registered based on a complaint filed by Arpita, police have claimed that there was a fight between relatives of Arpita’s husband Vijay and their neighbours over some issue 15 days ago.
The coffee estate owner and his son then locked up 14 workers inside their staff quarters until Satish and Manju (relatives of Vijay) repay a loan of ₹9 lakh they took from the father-son duo, another officer said, quoting local residents.
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