Three days after the right palms of two labourers of Odisha's Kalahandi district were chopped off allegedly by middlemen, one person was arrested today and four others detained in connection with the gruesome incident.
"One person has been arrested and some others were detained in connection with the palm chopping incident," Kalahandi district Collector B K Upadhyay said declining to give details saying investigation was in progress.
Superintendent of Police Sarthak Sarangi said labour agent Bimal Rout was nabbed from Dabugaon area of Nawrangpur district, while another labour agent Parsu Naik, labour sardar Parvez Dundi and two other accomplices - Baikuntha Rout and Bana Majhi were rounded up from Khariar area in Nuapada district.
While one of them has been arrested for his alleged involvement in Sunday's incident, the other four were now being interrogated, police said
The SP said three investigating squads were formed and sent to different locations to apprehend the accused persons. A team led by SP Sarangi is interrogating the persons nabbed in the crime.
The two labourers, who hail from Kalahandi district, are in a critical state since the incident on Sunday. The two had got themselves admitted to a hospital here on Monday and were later shifted to VSS Medical College and Hospital at Burla.
The Collector said efforts were being made for replacement of the palms of the wounded labourers.
The two labourers, identified as Nilambar Dhangada Majhi and Bialu Nial were among the 12 people, including five women from different villages of Jaipatna block in Kalahandi district, who were taken by two agents about a fortnight ago to Raipur in neighbouring Chhatisgarh. A complaint lodged by the victims' relatives with the police said they were taken on the assurance of providing them work.
At Raipur, however, the two agents Bimal Rout and Parshu Nayak handed over the two labourers to another person, Parme Rout who asked them to go to Hyderabad from there.
"After reaching Raipur, we were asked to go to Hyderabad. We did not agree and escaped from the agent's clutches. While 10 of us managed to flee and returned to our village, Majhi and Nial got caught," one of the labourers said.
The two men were taken to Nuapada district, kept confined in a village and subsequently taken to Belpada jungle where the agents demanded that they repay the advance taken by all the 12 labourers. When they pleaded their inability, the agents allegedly cut off their palms, the police said.
The other labourers, who had meanwhile, reached their villages, had alleged that they were getting threat calls from the agents demanding refund of the advance money given to them.
