Tribal labourer sold for Rs 2 lakh walks for days to reach home in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: “I walked for six days and nights, and ate raw potatoes thrown outside roadside outlets as I didn’t have a single penny but was adamant to return home, anyhow, said, a tribal labourer Sanjay Tirkey of Surguja district in Chhattisgarh, who was trafficked and sold for Rs 2 lakh in Tamil Nadu to work at a borewell site. He has lost count of days he walked for, and says that it took him six or 12 days to reach home.
It’s a bizarre case of human trafficking that came to light from a small village of Surguja district, where a local agent sold a tribal man to someone in Tamil Nadu, and after eight months of harrowing experience of hunger and exploitation, the labourer gathered courage to walk down for six days and nights to escape back to home.
Shaking with horror and fatigue, the victim Sanjay Tirkey who is a resident of Ghatgaon village in Mainpat narrated his ordeal to Sitapur police, revealing that eight months ago, a local man Ramvilas Yadav from Narmadapur offered him work in TN. He took him to a borewell operations site and without any communication, he left with Rs 2 lakh, he got from the company owner.
After a month of working at the site, when he asked for his salary, the owner told him he bought him for Rs 2 lakh from Yadav and he cannot leave the job. This came as a shock to him and he was too terrified to fight back the trap he got into. The endurance and hard work without a penny went on for eight months when Sanjay decided to escape.
On the night of Feb 28, Sanjay tip-toed from the labourer quarters and walked and walked until he reached closed to his home district. Extremely exhausted upon arrival, he told the family, he walked continuously for six days and nights. While Sanjay was shivering, his deteriorated health was a concern, hence, a villager took him to hospital, and reported the matter to the police. A case was immediately filed against Yadav and the company owner.
In his statement, he elaborated that after managing to flee from his captors, Sanjay reached Katni, and from there, he continued his journey and walked until he finally reached Pathalgaon in Jashpur. With the help of a local villager, he made his way back to his home in Ghatgaon.
Sitapur police station in charge Pradeep Jaiswal said that police have initiated an investigation into the case. He said that they were probing the case with an aim to uncover the racket of human trafficking network and identify all individuals involved in the crime.