'Need financial help': Family of teenager walked 150 km with severed arm to escape forced labour

Gurugram: The family of a 15-year-old boy who walked 150 km with a severed arm allegedly to escape forced labour said they need financial help to take care of the victim, who is being treated at PGIMS in Rohtak, Haryana.

"My brother has lost his arm from the elbow...we are staying here (Rohtak) with a lot of difficulties. We will file the complaint, but first of all, we need immediate financial help to take care of my brother," Jitender Kumar, brother of the victim, told PTI on Thursday.

The teenager from Bihar, allegedly confined to a room and forced into labour at a dairy farm in Haryana's Jind district for some time, walked for over 150 km with a severed arm before being rescued in Nuh district on Tuesday.

In Nuh, two teachers and police helped him and arranged medical care, food and clothes for him. Later, his family members reached Nuh and took him to PGIMS.

At the hospital, the doctors operated on him and had to amputate his arm from the elbow as the injury sustained by him while at the dairy farm could have worsened. His father and brother are with him and are seeking compensation.

The boy, from Bihar's Kishanganj district, had told the police that he was recruited under false pretenses and promised a monthly wage of Rs 10,000, but he was confined to a room and was denied food and wages.

At the dairy farm, he was made to operate a motorised fodder chopper, which he says, caused the injury that severed his arm.

Following the accident, he alleged that he was given medication that rendered him unconscious. When he woke up, he was in a dispensary, with a small amount of money in his possession.

After falling asleep again, he woke up to find his money and clothes missing and was allegedly asked to leave by a dispensary staff member.

The boy then began walking home toward Bihar, nearly 1,000 km away, before being spotted near Tauru in Nuh district by two government school teachers.

The teachers offered him food and took him to a police station. A police official provided the boy with a set of his own clothes and arranged medical care at the Nuh government health centre.

Police officials said that his brother and other relatives, who work as daily wage labourers in Kaithal district, arrived in Nuh after receiving information and took him to PGIMS, where he underwent surgery on Wednesday. He is now in a stable condition, they added.

"We had considered registering a zero FIR, but the boy's family ultimately declined to pursue a case, citing financial hardship", said Krishan Kumar, Nuh police spokesperson.

An NGO member said that they are trying to file a complaint in this matter, but the family of the victim said that they first want to be freed from the hospital.