Chained, tortured, beaten to death for just Rs.6,000

A Katkari adivasi, Jhipru Mukane, 35, of Shere village in Thane district's Shahpur taluka, 100 km from Mumbai, died last Tuesday after being kept chained and tortured into working as a bonded labourer.
His widow Jayabai, 30, who was denied even his body for last rites, has alleged police complicity and apathy in her complaint to Thane rural SP Ramesh Kumar Mor.
Misfortune came calling on the Mukanes in the form of local arrack vendor and brick kiln owner Balu Choudhari and his son Ganesh on October 27. "We had borrowed Rs6,000 from them in 2010, which we have repaid. But the Choudharis insisted we'd defaulted. They beat up my husband and dragged him away to their brick kiln," said Jayabai.
She went looking for him on November 12. "I saw him locked in small room where he could barely lie down. His hands and feet were chained and there were bruises allover his body," she told DNA. Jayabai's pleading had no effect on the Choudharis. "They abused me and told me not to come back."
She went to the Vasind police station, but they asked for a written complaint. Being illiterate and unable to find anyone to write a complaint immediately, she went back to her village and borrowed Rs50 from her neighbours to pay a writer.
But the police refused to take her written complaint too. "They said I should go home and wait for my husband to return," she said.
She went back to see him at the brick kiln on November 22 with some food. "When I reached there, the Choudharis were raining blows on him. I ran to save him, but they slapped me too. They threatened to throw me into the boiling arrack vat if I came back," Jayabai said.
Back in her village that night, two constables from Vasind police station came to her house and said her husband had died. "I asked them how he had died, but they couldn't tell me. I asked them to take me to his body. The said they cremated him after a post-mortem," she said. "How could they do this when they were refusing to even take my complaint?"
While the police refused to comment, Mor said he was unaware of the case. "I will find out details and get back to you."