The Haryana government has granted Rs 10 lakh compensation to a 15-year-old boy from Bihar who lost his left arm after being forced into bonded labour by a dairy owner in 2025.
The case came to light after the Haryana Human Rights Commission took cognizance of the incident.
The accused, Anil Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, enslaved Sanjay and allegedly cut off parts of his arm with a blade after it got entangled in a chaff cutter last July, is facing trial in the case.
Sanjay’s ordeal began in April 2025, when he arrived in Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) after travelling more than 1,500 km from Bihar’s Kishanganj district in search of work.
After more than a month, Sanjay’s father came to pick him up from Kangra. Both reached Jind, and on May 26, they boarded the Farakka Express from there. At Bahadurgarh railway station, Sanjay got down to buy food and water around 8 pm. He, however, failed to return to the train on time and missed it. He had no money or phone. His father searched for him at the next station, Delhi, but there was no way to contact him.
At Bahadurgarh railway station, Anil Kumar (28), a dairy owner from Gautambuddh Nagar (UP), saw Sanjay crying. He took advantage of his situation and brought him to his dairy on a motorcycle. Sanjay was forced to tend to cattle and work in the fields. The dairy had 30-35 cows and buffaloes and Kumar kept a strict watch on him. On one occasion, Sanjay tried to escape but was caught.
After about two months, while Sanjay was cutting fodder with a chaff cutter, his left arm was amputated at the elbow. He was bleeding and screaming in pain, but Kumar did not take him to a doctor. He instead cut the remaining part of Sanjay’s arm with a blade and gave him some medicine. The boy was still writhing in pain. Frightened by possible police action, Kumar took him to the Palwal-Hasanpur road, gave him Rs 10,000 and abandoned him in a wounded state. He also allegedly threw the small pieces of Sanjay’s arm into the Yamuna.
Meanwhile, a teacher helped Sanjay and took him to a Community Health Centre in Nuh. The local police contacted his father on July 29. Sanjay was referred to PGIMS, Rohtak, where he underwent four surgeries as the infection had spread.
While Sanjay was too traumatised to narrate his tragic story, his father told the police how a dairy owner had forced his son to work and abandoned him after he lost his arm. Sanjay could not identify the place where he was confined, but said “azaan” from a mosque was audible there. On August 10, 2025, a case was registered at Bahadurgarh.
Haryana Human Rights Commission’s member Deep Bhatia told The Tribune, “The boy could recall that planes used to land nearby and that there was a river. I suggested to the police to look for the accused near the Jevar airport area along the Haryana-UP border, where trial landings were taking place.”
After travelling across parts of Haryana, Delhi and UP along with Sanjay to locate the site, the police finally arrested Anil Kumar on December 30, 2025. He confessed to the crime.
The Commission, in its order dated May 14, observed, “…the victim-child has suffered not only physical injury but mental agony as well due to loss of upper left limb (left arm), thus, he has sustained permanent disability. Even though above said disability cannot be compensated at any cost, in a given situation, making provision of an artificial limb to the victim child may serve the cause. Making provision of an artificial limb to the victim-child would incur an expenditure of at least Rs. 10 lakhs or more. Thus, the victim-child must be provided an artificial upper limb, which is his basic necessity.”
In compliance with the Commission’s order, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Sudhir Rajpal, on June 23, awarded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the victim-child by giving relaxation in the Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme 2020 “as an exception case on humanitarian grounds.”