The Supreme Court on Monday took suo moto cognisance of a shocking incident last month where the hands of two labourers from Odisha were chopped off by a contractor after they refused to accompany him for work at a brick kiln in Chhattisgarh.
The bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi sought responses of the Chief Secretaries of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh Government based on a news report. The matter has been kept for hearing after four weeks.
The migrant workers from Odisha’s Bolangir district were part of a 12-member team who were paid advance money by a contractor on the promise to provide them job in Andhra Pradesh. The contractor, later, changed the plan and instead forced them to accompany him to Raipur to work at a brick kiln.
Ten workers escaped and returned to their village while the two who remained faced the brunt of the contractor’s fury. The contractor chopped the right arm of the two labourers, who had to be rushed to the Kalahandi Government hospital for immediate treatment. It was then the incident came to light.
Police said that the contractor had paid about Rs 14,000 to the 12 workers on the pretext of taking them to Hyderabad for some building construction. Four persons have been arrested in this regard.