Farmers Movement Archive

Truck with migrants intercepted near Gurugram, 3 arrested

Three truck drivers were arrested after they were intercepted attempting to transport migrants from Ludhiana to Uttar Pradesh at the Gurugram-Jhajjar border on Thursday.The migrants have been shifted to relief camps and an investigation has been initiated.Migrant labourers across the country have been rendered jobless by the ongoing lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus and have been desperately trying to reach their hometowns.While a group of 76 migrants, including two children, were hustled together in a truck, another 72 migrants were found at a field along the KMP, where they had been dropped by a vehicle and were waiting for another.All of them have been shifted to relief camps while three truck drivers have been arrested for violating the ongoing lockdown and trying to transport 76 migrants from Ludhiana to Gorakhpur.Two separate FIRs has been registered at Farrukhnagar police station.The truck drivers identified as Gurucharan Singh, Gurusevak Singh and Harvinder Singh, all residents of Ludhiana confessed to transporting the labourers to make a quick buck. They had reportedly charged all Rs 2,000 per head to hide them in their truck. The migrants claimed they were too desperate to get back to native villages and got to know about the drivers through word of mouth."To escape the lockdown truck drivers pasted a paper on the front like pass saying "COVID-19, Agriculture Farmer Pesticide" and also covered the truck with tarpaulin. It was on KMP near Gurugram Jhajjar border that when the truck neared the 72 others hiding in fields came out and Naaka police got alert. We rounded those nad frisked truck and found 76 others. Two FIR's have been registered. The migrants are shifted to nearby relief camps ", said Deepak Saharan, DCP, Manesar.

The Tribune

2020-04-23

Gurugram