Jalna, May 22 (PTI) A family of nine comprising three men, two women and four children have been rescued by Jalna police from a sugarcane farm in Solapur district in Maharashtra where they were held as bonded labourers for the past two years, an official said on Saturday.

The nine were part of 11 kin of Mariya Bablu Gule (40) who had gone to cut cane in a farm in Bairagwadi village in Madha tehsil in Solpaur after being promised good wages, said Inspector Prashant Mahajan.

"However, they were soon made bonded labourers and not allowed to leave. But, on May 5, Gule's mother and a woman relative managed to escape and reached Jalna. Police were alerted and a team under Mahajan went and rescued the rest nine members of the family. A case has been taken against the cane farm's supervisor and his father-in-law," an official said, adding that the case had been transferred to Madha police station for further probe.

Jalna MLA Kailash Gorantyal, who the two family members approached first after escaping from Madha, said it was appalling such incidents continued to happen, adding that the victims were made to live in a shack.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)