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In a disturbing case of bonded child labour, a nine-year-old Andhra boy forced into work in harsh conditions died and was buried in secret in Tamil Nadu by the family holding him. The boy, Venkatesh, was being held illegally and forced into servitude until his mother paid off her debt in Tirupati district. The initial autopsy report indicated the boy died of jaundice.
Venkatesh, who belonged to the Yanadi community (Scheduled Tribe), was buried in Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram district without his family’s knowledge. The child was being held by one Muthu after Venkatesh’s mother sought some time to repay money she had borrowed from him.
Based on Venkatesh’s mother’s complaint, the police have arrested Muthu, his wife Dhanabhagyam and son Rajashekar.
According to the complaint, Muthu had employed Venkatesh’s parents, Anakamma and Chenchaiah, for a year in Tirupati’s Satyavedu mandal until Chenchaiah’s death. Following Chenchaiah’s death, Ankamma borrowed Rs 25,000 from Muthu to meet some expenses, and she continued working for him. When she finally stated that the money he paid her wasn’t enough, Muthu said that she could leave his employ only when the debt was paid, which he argued now came up to Rs 42,000 with interest.
Anakamma agreed to pay off the debt but sought some time to collect the money. Muthu demanded that Anakamma leave Venkatesh behind till she repaid the money. Though she was hesitant, Anakamma agreed and spoke to her son regularly on the phone.
“He (Venkatesh) told me that he was being overworked and threatened. He asked me to come take him away,” Anakamma stated in her police complaint. Eventually, when Anakamma raised the money, she contacted Muthu but was met with competing narratives.
“He first said that they were in Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram district and would release the child once they came back to Tirupati in 20 days. Then Muthu said that Venkatesh had run away and that they were looking for him. When I finally went to their house on May 15, Muthu, Dhanabhagyam and Rajashekar abused me with caste slurs and said that they owed me no explanation,” Anakamma stated in her complaint.
Initial investigation by the police revealed that in the second week of April, a month before the confrontation with Anakamma, Venkatesh had fallen sick and eventually passed away. Muthu and his family buried him near the Palair river in Kanchipuram and did not inform Anakamma. The Satyavedu police, with the help of Kanchipuram police, exhumed Venkatesh’s body on May 22 and sent it for postmortem.
“We are still waiting on the final postmortem report to know the exact cause of death, but preliminary reports indicate that he died of jaundice. Regardless, all the accused have been arrested and sent for remand,” Tirupati Superintendent of Police (SP) Harshvardhan Raju told TNM. The SP added that the Tirupati District Collector was in the process of issuing a release certificate and compensation to Anakamma under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act.
Based on Anakamma’s complaint, an FIR was registered on May 19 under relevant sections of the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, Child Labour Act, Juvenile Justice Act, and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.