2007/04/27
R. Ganesh was made to work from 8am to midnight daily and was not given proper food by his employer over the last eight months.BUKIT MERTAJAM: He was dumped like a piece of garbage into some bushes in the dead of night.
But to R. Ganesh, it was nothing compared with the torture he had endured at the hands of his employer.
At least it meant there would be no more beatings, or being confined in chains, or living with the unbearable hunger.
And as he lay on the damp ground, shivering in fear and too weak to even moan, GaneshÂ’s only thought was that the secondary jungle would be his final resting place.
But luck smiled on the 28-year-old from Tamil Nadu, India, when a group of villagers stumbled upon him the next morning.
Shocked by his skeletal frame and the bruises covering his body, the villagers summoned an ambulance.
Ganesh was rushed to the Sungai Petani Hospital where doctors confirmed that he had been abused and suffered from malnutrition and dehydration as a result of starvation.
They have since put him on a soft diet as he is unable to swallow any food.
Relating his ordeal to the New Straits Times from his hospital bed, Ganesh said he had arrived here in August last year. "I was offered a job with a family who runs a business making chilli sauce.
"They were supposed to pay me RM800 monthly," he said, adding that he immediately started work at the employerÂ’s house in Taman Nirwana, Alma, near here.
Ganesh said he was ordered to work from 8am to midnight daily and was not given any days off or proper food for the past eight months.
He was also threatened with dire consequences if he tried to run away or report the matter to the police.
His employer, the employerÂ’s wife and son abused him almost every day.
"They hit me with sticks, rubber hose and iron rod. I was also deprived of food and water. They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night."
Ganesh said he thought his employer was going to kill him when he was bundled into a car on Monday night and driven to the secluded jungle in Gurun.
Police have arrested GaneshÂ’s employer, his wife and son on Wednesday. They are being remanded for six days.
Penang MIC state liaison committee chairman and lawyer, N. Ahilan, who visited Ganesh in the hospital, promised to provide him with legal aid.