DEHRADUN: A khap panchayat at a village less than 100 km from Vikasnagar allegedly issued a diktat that a bonded labourer who had fled from the settlement with his wife would be killed if he ever returned. Moreover, his eldest son, who lives in the village, has been ordered to pay Rs 1.5 lakh which the parents allegedly took with them.

The retrograde, not to mention shocking, order was allegedly issued by a gathering of heads of 12 neighbouring villages at Bangoti village, from where the bonded labourer named Madhoram fled along with his wife. Madhoram was among the 25 Dalits who escaped bonded labour and approached Uttarakhand Human Rights Commission last week. Heads of these villages then called for an urgent meeting on Friday, which was attended by thousands of locals.

Madhoram had borrowed Rs 30,000 from a high caste villager nearly eight years ago and, ever since, his wife and he had been allegedly forced to work in the man’s fields to repay the money. Exhausted by the years of labour, the couple fled the village on March 9. Their younger son, Gajendra Kumar, was called by the khap on Friday. Terrified, he did not attend the panchayat and is also on the run.

That did not stop the gathering to issue a ‘farmaan’ against Madhoram and an order to Deewan, the Dalit man’s eldest son, who stays at Bangoti, to pay Rs 1.5 lakh. “As per the order, my parents and I will be killed if we ever return to the village. My Dalit friends who attended the panchayat said they are hunting for us. People were forced to put their thumb impression on the order. None of us will be able to return to the village now,” said Gajendra, talking to TOI.

However, a written statement by the panchayat to the media and district administration said, “There is no such case of bonded labour in the entire Chaktra area. Unnecessary elements are brainwashing innocent people.”

Saldar Singh Rawat from Burason village, who attended the khap panchayat denied any order to kill the Dalit man. “More than 1,600 villagers were present at the meeting and a compromise has been arrived at. Nobody will say or do anything to Madho,” Rawat claimed.

However, Dalit activist Daulat Kunwar who had rescued the alleged bonded labourers failed to register an FIR at a police station on Friday. “Our entire battle is to get their cases registered at a regular police station rather than being handed over to revenue police, but yet again, these people were referred to the tehsildar by the district administration of Kalsi,” he told TOI.

“We are following the procedures as stated in the law. I have told the complainants to approach the tehsildar who has been directed by me to give his report within a week,” said Kalsi sub-divisional magistrate Prem Lal.

The escaped bonded labourers wanted their cases to be handled by regular police rather than revenue police as they alleged that the latter is under the influence of upper caste residents of Chakrata, which is why bonded labour has not been eradicated in the area. The people who are on the run alleged that, after the Bangoti decision, other panchayats will issue similar statements denying bonded labour exists in the area, while continuing to hunt them down.

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