The police have booked Vashisht Dake, 35, from Valva village of Islampur taluka, for murder and have launched a manhunt for him.
Even as the Bombay High Court filed a suo motu petition based on DNA reports of two tribal bonded labourers being killed in separate incidents last year, another bonded labourer was burned to death by his owner in Beed district on Sunday.
Farmhand Sahadev Tayed, 32, of Chincholi village in Gevrai taluka, succumbed to his burn injuries on Monday morning.
The police have booked Vashisht Dake, 35, from Valva village of Islampur taluka, for murder and have launched a manhunt for him.
Every year, Tayed used to migrate from his arid Marathwada village to Sangli to work on sugarcane fields. In October 2011, before he started work on Dake’s farm, Tayed borrowed Rs 10,000 for his father’s treatment.
“I returned Rs 5,000 in December 2011. In January, when I visited home I fell ill and could not return to work,” Tayed had said in his dying statement to the police.
“On January 7, Dake came with four of his henchmen to my village and began beating me up for not coming to work. He said I should return the outstanding Rs5,000. He returned the next day and began beating me up again. When I said I didn’t have the money he got furious, doused me with kerosene and set me ablaze. My father tried to save me and suffered burns,” Tyed had told the police.
When they realised that the villagers were coming to Tayed’s aid, which is on the outskirts of Chincholi village, Dake and his men fled.
Tayed, who had suffered 93% burns, was rushed to Beed Civil hospital. He died on Monday.
His father Mhasoba Tayde, 61, broke down while speaking to DNA. “What was his mistake? Being poor? Once he was well he would have gone back to work.”
He kept asking local tehsildar SK Bande, who was conducting an inquiry, whether this will bring his son back to life.
Deputy superintendent of police from Beed Jyoti Kshirsagar said that an offence under Section 302 of the IPC had been registered against Dake and three others. “They are absconding and we are coordinating with Sangli police to nab them at the earliest,” she added.
When asked why charges were not registered against them under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, she said: “We will look into that too.”
Senior officials of both the revenue and police departments in Beed admit in confidence that this case will lead to a few red faces in the state home ministry as Dake is from Sangli —state home minister RR Patil’s home district.
“If they don’t take action it will reflect poorly and if they do it will mean accepting that the bonded labour system exists in Patil’s own backyard,” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
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