KalingaTimes Correspondent
Kendrapara (Orissa): Police on Tuesday rescued
a former employee of a Bhubaneswar-based placement
agency facing charges of trafficking youths
from this region to Malaysia from a frenzied
mob in Nikiraia village, 15 km from here.
The villagers gave vent to their anger as
about four youths from the area reportedly
enslaved in Malaysia since their departure
three months back.
The mob badly beat up Sunil Das and held
him captive in the village. The irate mob
pounced on him demanding the refund of money
that the Malaysia bound youths had paid
to the placement agency, police said.
"We rescued the man in distress. He
was later brought to the safety of police
station," said a police officer.
The people stubbornly resisted the police
move. After much persuasion, they agreed
to hand over Das to police team, said sources.
The rescued man was later released from
police custody as he had obtained anticipatory
bail in connection with the trafficking
case lodged in Bhubaneswar's airfield police
station.
It may be noted here that State Human Rights
Commission had expressed deep concern over
surge in human trafficking cases and asked
the state government to initiate measures
for early repatriation of over a dozen of
youths from Kendrapara district languishing
in Malaysia.
A group of jobless youths lured by the
placement agency's attractive job offer
in Malaysia had landed themselves in trouble.
They were duped after arriving in the alien
land in May last and were treated as bonded
labour.
A Dalit youth from this part of the state
had undergone a two-month-long nightmarish
ordeal in Malaysia and escaped from the
clutches of a well-knit human trafficking
racket, bringing to the fore the harrowing
plight of a number of unemployed local youths
still stranded in Malaysia in their quest
for greener pastures.
Over a two dozen of unemployed mostly Dalits
from Nahanga, Choti-Mangalpur, Charigaon,
Kurutunga and Dhola villages under Kendrapara
police station area made their way to Malaysia
courtesy job offers in the south east Asian
country with attractive pay package by the
placement agency.
The search for job had proved abortive
as the job seekers were taken for a ride.
Even as two youths risking their lives made
their safe return to their native village
recently, fate of the rest of the group
is still unknown in an inhospitable land.
The shell-shocked parents had petitioned
the Chief Minister and sought the Malaysian
embassy to intervene for the safe return
of their wards.
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