Ranchi, March 7: A six-member family arrives at Tatisilwai railway station on Thursday. The family members alleged they were sold to tea estate owners in Bhutan by “human traders”.

All six members, including two women and two children, are given shelter by residents of Tatisilwai, who also arrange for their food. This story was carried in vernacular dailies this morning.

The leader of the group, Emanuel Kujur alias Ravi Kujur revealed that more than 90 tribals from Jharkhand’s Gumla district were sold to estate owners in Bhutan who employed them as workers in their tea gardens. He said at least 41 labourers from Jharkhand had died in Bhutan where they were made to work under inhuman condition.

Kujur’s revelations shocked an entire Ranchi township and the matter also created a storm in the Assembly with both Oppossition and treasury benches expressing concern over the exodus of tribals from the state. Even chief minister Babulal Marandi joined the members to express his concern and ordered an enquiry.

But the events took a dramatic turn when a journalist was interviewing Kujur who narrated his woes before media persons. Soon he recollected that he had met Kujur before. “After a while, I realised that he was the same person I had interviewed for the daily newspaper I was working for in 1989,” said journalist Girija Shankar Ojha.

Ojha’s story was carried by Hindi daily Aaj in its edition dated May 14 1989.

Ojha rushed back home and got the clipping of the newspaper report, which also carried a photograph of Kujur. Kujur's “escape back to homeland” 15 years ago was the same that he described before newsmen today and yesterday.

Assembly speaker Inder Singh Namdhari said: “Now this appears to be a fraud. The person should be nabbed,” he told reporters.