Ina bizarre incident, labourers from the Kashipur area of Rayagada were arrested by Kerela Police in Iduuki district, for faking a kidnap situation and trying to extort money from the local MLA for their 'release'.
On 15th March Rayagada MLA, who also happens to be the Dy. Speaker of the Orissa Legislative Assembly got a call from a number ( 0996161978) from a person who claimed to be one Sanjeeb Jain, the GM of one Nalcost company in Banglore and that he was duped for Rs. 2,70,000 by a labour contractor from Orissa and that he has 7 of the Oriya labourers from Kashipur and that if he is not given Rs. 2,00,000, before noon of 16th March, will send these detained labourers to Japan !!!
The Dy Speaker informed the District Labour Officer, Sri. Jit Mohan Hansdah, who inturn got back to Collector Rayagada. Collector Rayagada, Dr. Nitin. B. Jawale spoke to the person on the given mobile no., posing as one local gentleman fron Rayagada who will be paying the 'ransom' amount. Meanwhile SP Rayagada, Sri. Anoop Krishna was informed about the incident and efforts were made to trace out the number and its location.
The imposter kidnappers were kept busy by negotiating over phone and the deadline was successfully extended till 4 pm. The location was traced to Idukki in Kerala and the SP Rayagada got in touch with his Idukki counterpart. Accordingly the imposters were guided to the bank in Idduki, where they had demanded the ransom money to be deposited. A trap was laid by Idukki Police and the imposters were nabbed.
The arrests lead to some funny revelations that it was the labourers themselves who had planned this kidnap drama and took assistance of a local shop owner in whose account the money was to be deposited. This shop owner was lured into their trap by the laborers and he was the first one to be caught. He subsequently spilled the beans and a very bizarre and comic plot was exposed !
There has always been lot of talk about migrant labourers from Orissa being exploited in other states, but this incident is not only a departure from this trend but a totally antithetical in the sense that the seemingly innocent tribal migrant labourers have tried to use this phenomenon of migrant labour exploitation for their 'own plans'.
