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Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Twelve migrant workers, who were walking back home from Jharkhand to West Bengal amid the nationwide lockdown, were taken to the police station and charged for violating the lockdown. They were even forced to take bail and pay Rs 3,500.
On 22 April, 24 workers left their villages after the ration exhausted. But, the police caught them on the way and put them in a quarantine centre. The labourers alleged that, on 11 May, the Jaduguda police station in-charge told them that they would either have to take bail or go to jail.
After this, each one of them had to pay Rs 3,500 for bail, following which the police released them. Of them, 12 laborers were from Birbhum and 12 from Malda district of West Bengal. The workers from Birbhum returned to their village but the workers from Malda had no money left to return home.
The migrant workers claim that even after paying for bail, they could not go home. With no money left, they appealed for help but were sent to Chakradharpur in Jharkhand instead.
A case was registered against these workers under sections 188, 269, 270, 290 and 34 of the IPC. Even after they tested negative for coronavirus, sections 269, 270 of IPC were not removed.
When The Quint reached out to SSP Jamshedpur Tamil Banan, he said that the migrants workers were charged for violating lockdown rules.
Currently, the twelve migrant workers are staying in a rented apartment in Chakradharpur, where they have to pay a rent of Rs 3,500.
They have no money left for food or rent and are dependent on supplies from good samaritans. All they want is to go back home.
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