Dozens of workers from Hanuman Sugar Mill at Motihari in Bihar's Champaran district gathered outside the Janata Dal-United office in Jantar Mantar here on Thursday to demand a CBI inquiry into the self-immolation of two workers of the mill. 

The workers alleged that the sugar mill, closed since 2000, did not pay wages and PF arrears to 7000 farmers and 500 labourers amounting to almost Rs 80 crore. 

The mill owners did not comply with several court orders, they said. However, in 2015 there was a tripartite agreement between the mill owners, labourers and administration for payment of dues which could not be enforced. Despite several warrants for the owner of the mill, Bimal Nopani, they were not executed, the workers alleged.

Purnima Devi, wife of Naresh Srivastava who immolated himself, told The Statesman that a notice of self-immolation was given to the local administration setting a deadline of 9 April. Copies of the notice were also sent to the chief minister, Prime Minister and  President and all them acknowledged receiving the notice but did not act on it, she lamented.

“My husband was fighting for a long time to get the wages cleared and to ensure that everyone gets their pending money from the mill owners. Finally he issued a notice that if it was not done, he will burn himself but nobody cared since we are poor. He is no more in this world but I will fight to ensure that justice is done so that my husband's soul rests in peace,” she said. 

Others who were travelling to Delhi with these people to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar were allegedly stopped by the Motihari police in Bihar. Salim Ansari, who was a labourer at the same mill, said, “We were almost 200 people who boarded the train from Bihar to Delhi but policemen including the DSP raided the train to ensure that everyone was taken out of the train. Only a few of us could manage to reach Delhi .”

The mill workers alleged that the Motihari police had filed false charges against them of instigating the two union leaders to immolate themselves. However, in the video recording of one of the deceased labourers which The Statesman has, he is heard saying no one is responsible for his act except the mill owners and the administration.

Swami Agnivesh, social activist and JD-U leader, joined the protesters and alleged that Nitish Kumar was doing nothing to provide relief to the workers. “It comes as a shock that when the country was celebrating hundred years of Champaran Satyagraha, these events were unfolding in the state. It is a nexus between administration, mill owners and land mafia that these two union  leaders, Naresh Srivastav and Suraj Baitha, were left with no choice than to burn themselves,” said Agnivesh. He is now demanding a CBI probe into the matter.