Muzaffarnagar (UP), Jul 18 More than a month after 12 bonded labourers, including minors, were rescued from a paper plate manufacturing factory in Muzaffarnagar district, a local court on Saturday sent the factory owner and its supervisor to 48-hour and 12-hour police custody, respectively, officials said.
According to government counsel Pradeep Balyan, police had sought the custody of Ankit Balyan, the factory owner, and Shiva Tyagi, its supervisor, for interrogation at the end of their judicial remand.
Police took the accused into custody from jail after Special Judge Manoj Kumar Siddhu granted them the custody of the duo, 48 hours for Balyan and 12 hours for Tyagi.
The matter came to light on June 23 when police rescued 12 bonded labourers bearing visible torture marks on their bodies, including minors, from the paper plate factory at Mandi village under Titawi police station limits following a tip-off.
The labourers claimed that they had been confined inside the factory for more than a year, forced to work without wages and assaulted whenever they tried to escape.
Police subsequently arrested four accused, including Balyan and Tyagi, and booked them under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.
The investigation was later expanded to include the alleged murder of another bonded labourer named Arjun alias Topa.
Later, a special investigation team was constituted to probe the incident.
