The rescued workers. Telegraph picture

Bagoder/Dumri (Giridih), Aug. 30: “For 27 days we were unclothed, fed a handful of rice and a piece of fish,” said labourer Deglal Mahto.

It was also 27 days of constant discomfort as he and 15 of his colleagues remained handcuffed in a Malaysian prison after their work permits expired.

The cuffs came off only when their plane arrived at Chennai on August 27.

Mahto, a resident of Dumri, was one of the 16 labourers (12 from Jharkhand and four from Uttar Pradesh) freed from a Kuala Lumpur prison after Malaysian police caught them without work permits trying to flee their employer, Everline Engineering (SDN-BHD).

The 16 began work at Everline in March 2008, but the company stopped paying them salaries soon after July. Mahto, who could haltingly speak the language, protested. “When we refused to work without pay we were kept in a single room for two days,” he said.

“When our permits expired the company refused to renew them and decreased the amount of rice that they would give us. As we had no permit we could not move freely and were confined to a single room for seven months. Company goons made it clear that if we did not work, we would die in that room,” said Thakur Chand Mahto of Bagoder.

One of the workers managed to inform his family about his predicament in January.

The family in turn contacted Bagoder MLA Vinod Singh, the district administration, the government and the governor.

“I first got to know of their plight in January. I searched all Malaysian websites and corresponded with the embassy till I found a name, Ashok K. Kanth. I knew a Patna University professor, Vinay Kanth, with a similar surname. As luck would have it, Ashok was his brother,” he said.

“When the men went missing I wrote to the embassy repeatedly till they were traced,” said Vinod.

After his first complaint, the Malaysian authorities made a courtesy call to the company.

“We were beaten up for having complained and were forced to call the MLA and tell him that we were fine,” said Lakkhan Mahto, also from Bagoder.

“That call misled me a little, but I kept checking. I requested for another inspection and requested the embassy to keep the visit a secret,” said the Bagoder MLA.

This time the official visit revealed the torture. But before the men could be freed, company boss Ambu Mani called them to his residence and beat up Deglal.

On July 27, 2009, the men escaped and were caught by the police the next day. “In jail we saw a man from Bangladesh die right before our eyes. No one tried to treat him even after he fell ill. We had also lost all hope of making it back home alive … till we heard that MLA Vinod Singhji had approached the Malaysian embassy to release us,” he said.

At Chennai the men were greeted and fed by CPI-ML cadre and tickets to their homes handed over to them.

“We went to earn a living but returned with our hands cuffed and pockets empty. Vinodji is our messiah,” said Chandrika Mahto of Bagoder.