Minor boy confined in contractor’s house rescued

Local people rescued a minor boy from the house of a contractor, who had allegedly confined him for the past three days in his house at Mahishadal in East Midnapore.

Police said that the boy is a resident of Nandigram. His maternal uncle had sent him to the contractor Debashis Maiti for work. Debashis had engaged him to work in a tea shop. But the boy was not willing to work there and told the contractor that he wanted to return to Nandigram.

Instead of allowing him to go, Debashis locked him inside a room on the first floor of his house and told everyone that he had stolen some valuables from his house. He had remained confined since Saturday.

Debashis had even taken away the photograph of his mother and father and the mobile phone he was carrying. He had allegedly threatened to hand him over to the police after lodging a false complaint of theft against him. As a result, he kept silent for the past two days.

On Tuesday morning, he found some people passing along the road which was adjacent to the house. Knowing that Debashis was not around him, he shouted and sought their help. The man informed the local people that the minor was not allowed to go home and Debashis had taken away his mobile phone as well.

The local people approached the police. Policemen including the officer-in-charge of Mahishadal police station Ajit Jhao went to the spot and rescued the minor boy. The police have detained Debashis and he would be arrested if the allegations are found to be true. The police came to know from the local people that Debashis had committed similar crime of confining a worker for a few days earlier. Thus the police are trying to find whether he was involved with any human trafficking racket.