UP Police busts bonded labour racket, 12 freed from captivity

Published 25 June 2026 · india

Twelve bonded labourers, including minors, were rescued from a factory in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday, with the workers alleging they had been held captive

Twelve bonded labourers, including minors, were rescued from a factory in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday, with the workers alleging they had been held captive for months, forced to work up to 20 hours a day, brutally assaulted and made to survive on rotis prepared from cattle feed. The workers, who were rescued by the UP Police on Tuesday, told the officials that they were lured with promises of jobs, food, accommodation and regular shifts, but were instead kept behind locked gates, under surveillance and without the wages they had been promised. Read Full Story Police said the labourers bore visible injury marks on their legs, backs and waists, and that a fresh case has now been registered after some of them alleged that a Nepalese worker, Arjun alias Topi, died after torture inside the factory in November last year and that his body was later disposed of in a bag. Supervisor Shiva Tyagi has been arrested, while factory owner Ankit Balyan is absconding. For months, and in some cases for more than a year, the workers said they lived inside the factory compound under severe restrictions. Many said they had been picked up from railway stations and bus stands with promises of monthly salaries of Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, meals, accommodation and eight-hour duty. Instead, they alleged, their phones and identity papers were taken away, they were denied wages and forced to work almost round the clock.

"We were promised three meals a day, accommodation and an eight-hour duty," Sonu Chauhan of Agra, who had left home six months ago in search of work, told news agency PTI. "From the next day, we were made to work continuously. If we felt sleepy, we were beaten with belts. We were given only three or four rotis in 24 hours. We never saw vegetables or dal. We ate rotis made from bran meant for cattle, with salt and red chilli," he said. The workers said their day often began before dawn and continued till late at night. Ramu, a resident of Nainital in Uttarakhand, alleged that labourers were made to start work at around 4 am and continue till midnight. "We got only two or three hours to sleep. Even if someone was sick, there was no leave. We were told we would not leave the place alive," he said. According to the workers, they operated disposable-plate machines, counted finished products, packed them in plastic covers and filled sacks. "There was never a moment when we were allowed to sit idle," one worker said. Several workers said the factory was set up in a way that made escape extremely difficult. They spoke of high boundary walls, multiple locked gates, CCTV cameras and pitbull dogs inside and outside the premises. "Inside there were cameras, outside there were cameras. There were dogs everywhere.