A total of 18 migrant workers, who were desperate to return to their homes in Lucknow amid lockdown, were found inside a cement mixer on a highway in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
According media reports, the police officers on duty stationed at the border between Indore and Ujjain stopped the truck to check for illegal movement of people during the nationwide lockdown.
As the police stopped the vehicle for checking, the driver of the truck became nervous.
The nervous reaction of the driver alerted the cops and they decided to check the massive drum in which large quantities of cement and other materials are mixed to produce concrete for construction activities.
To their shock, when they opened the lid, 18 men were found sitting inside it.
The Indore police have filed an FIR against the truck driver whereas the migrants have been medically screened and would be sent to Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow by the police.
The report quoted deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of Indore, Umakant Chaudhary as saying: “They were travelling from Maharashtra to Lucknow. The truck has been sent to a police station & an FIR has been registered.”
In the video, a cop is heard asking: “How many more people? How many people are there inside?”
Another man is heard ordering the migrants to stand by the side of the road and maintain a gap between each other to ensure social distancing.
The second man ordered: “Count them”.
The video on the migrant workers coming out of the mixer, parked along the road, one by one along with their belongings went viral on the social media within minutes.
The entrance through which the men were coming out is barely wide enough to fit a human being.
It is also surprising how all the 18 men could survive inside the drum.
The incident has left the people shocked and heartbroken at the prevailing situations of migrant workers due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown.