Fear and frustration force abandoned staff to turn violent

[email protected] (Emirates 24 7)
December 22, 2011

shrj

Sharjah, December 22: An Indian worker who stripped naked and turned violent had to be tied up and shackled by his colleagues in Sharjah.



The 34-year-old Bhushan T, who is from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has been working with Systems Engineering since last four years. The owner of the company fled earlier this month, leaving almost 500 employees with unpaid dues for six months.


“He was so distressed with the state of affairs that he started behaving strangely, almost a week ago,” said Siddique, one of his colleagues.


“He is very agitated. He picked up unnecessary fights. Stripped naked outside and was even arrested by the police, who later let him free. He was even beaten up by some Chinese men living in a nearby camp,” he added.

“It is not just him, we all are agitated by the state of affairs,” he added.



Bhushan whose visa expired almost a year ago is married with two children and has a loan of more than Rs100,000 that was borrowed from India. “He borrowed more to maintain his family during the last six months. He is even more agitated today because he is unable to leave the country as his visa has expired,” added Siddique.

Almost 200 workers, including many of Bhushan’s colleagues, have been already sent home after authorities in Hamriya Free Zone facilitated their travel and paid them Dh1,000 each. Workers were demanding authorities to at least auction the remaining property and machinery and pay them for what they worked for. “Even during the recent three-day holiday, we all worked overtime because there was an urgent job to be completed,” said another worker.

Many of them have been employed for over 10 years, and say their gratuities alone would have amounted to anywhere between Dh15,000 and 40,000 each. Last week, some employees said that they were so deep in debt that the thought of suicide did cross their mind at times.

Bhushan meanwhile has now been shifted to the workers' accommodation in Sharjah. “Although many companies promised to provide us jobs, so far nothing has materialized. Some of them are even trying to exploit us. We have some of the best skilled workers who were earning around Dh1,300 to Dh1,800. Some people approached us and asked us to work for Dh600 and Dh1,000, without food or accommodation,” said another employee.



Some of the remaining workers said food has become scarce.


“Last night, we were all starving when a kind hearted lady from Sharjah fetched us some food in the middle of the night,” he added.


Laila Abubaker from ORMA has been helping the workers.

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Agencies
May 19,2020

Yavatmal, May 19: Four migrant workers were killed and 15 others were injured after a bus they were travelling in crashed into a truck in Yavatmal on Tuesday morning.

The bus was travelling from Solapur to Jharkhand. More details are currently awaited.

This comes amid nationwide COVID-19 lockdown has been extended to May 31, albeit with some relaxations.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Pratapgarh, Jun 2: In a shocking incident, a young man was tied to a tree and set afire by the family of a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh late on Monday night.

The man, 25, was a resident of Bhujauni village under Fatanpur police station, and he died on the spot.

Enraged over the incident, his family members and local people turned violent and set two police vehicles on fire.

Additional forces were rushed in to control the situation that remains tense.

The body has been sent for post-mortem.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP), Pratapgarh, Abhishek Singh, "Some people barged into the house of Ambika Patel and dragged him away. They then tied Patel to a tree some distance away and set him on fire after sprinkling petrol on him. They fled immediately after." Agitated family members and villagers assembled at the site and set a 112 police response vehicle (PRV) and another police jeep on fire. They were demanding immediate arrest and action against the accused.

The official said that Patel's relatives claimed that he was having an affair with a woman from his village and this had resulted in many face-offs between the families.

Patel had reportedly shared a video clip of the woman on social media a few months ago further increasing tension between the families.

The woman's family members had registered a police complaint against Patel in this connection at the Fatanpur police station that led to his arrest. He was released from jail recently, police added.

The woman had been recently selected as a police constable and was posted to Kanpur.

The SP said that an FIR had been registered on the complaint of the victim's family and efforts were on to arrest the accused.

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News Network
January 3,2020

Unnao, Jan 3: The Uttar Pradesh Police has submitted a charge sheet in a court here in connection with the death of a 23-year-old Unnao rape victim, who was allegedly set ablaze by five men.

Additional Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar Pandey, who is heading a Special Investigation Team in the case, said the charge sheet was submitted on Wednesday.

"There is ample proof against the five accused persons, and the charge sheet was prepared based on those evidences," he said on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Unnao rape victim, who was airlifted to Delhi and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 90 per cent burns after being set on fire, died following a cardiac arrest on December 6, 2019.

The woman was set afire by five men, including two of her alleged rapists, on December 5 morning when she was going to Rae Bareli to attend a court hearing in the rape case filed by her.

In her statement to Sub Divisional Magistrate Dayashankar Pathak, the woman had said she was attacked when she reached Gaura turn near her home on her way to the court.

She had specifically named Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi as the persons who set her on fire.

The woman had also alleged that Shivam and Shubham Trivedi had abducted and raped her in December 2018.

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