Ranchi, Mar 07: Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi today ordered officials to inquire into the reported sale of 45 Adivasi families from Gumla district in the state as labourers in Bhutan. Raising the matter in the assembly, CPI(ML) MLA Mahendra Singh drew his attention to a local daily report which said that two of the families, who were reportedly sold off as labourers in Bhutan in 1996, reached here on Wednesday night after escaping from their owners with the help of an army official. Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari said a special two-hour discussion would be held on the matter.

Ravi Kujur and his brother Manu, narrating their plight before reporters in the presence of officer-in-charge of Jagannathpur police station, Janaki Ram, said that they, along with their wives and two children, were sold with 43 other families by a middleman who promised them work in Darjeeling tea gardens, but instead took them to Bhutan to work for a stone-cutting company.
Asked why it took them six years to escape from the clutches of their owners, Kujur said, "The place where we used to work as stone-cutters is over 400 km from the border. The fear for our lives and poverty back home discouraged us".
Bureau Report