A woman allegedly left her son as ‘collateral’ with a duck rearer in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati after she failed to repay a loan of ₹25,000. The duck rearer reportedly held the woman and her three children from the Yanadi tribal community as bonded labourers.

Later, when the woman finally managed to arrange the money to get her son back, it was found that her son had died. The duck rearer confessed the boy had died and was buried secretly in Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram, NDTV reported.

However, police are investigating the matter. The duck rearer and his family were arrested.

The case so far

The woman, Anakamma, her husband Chenchaiah, and their three sons belonged from the Yanadi tribal community. According to NDTV, they worked for a year for the duck rearer in Tirupati.

When Chenchaiah died, the employer continued to make Ankamma and her three children work for him. The duck rearer told them that they could not leave because her husband had taken a ₹25,000 loan from him.

Officials told NDTV that Ankamma and all three children were made to work very long hours. She had pleaded for higher wages, but the duck rearer had refused.

When Ankamma insisted that she wanted to leave, the duck rearer demanded ₹45,000 – with ₹20,000 as interest – as repayment of the loan. Ankamma then requested the duck rearer to give her 10 days to arrange the money.

Ankamma was, however, told that she would have to leave one of her children behind as collateral. Left with no option, she agreed.

According to NDTV, Anakamma occasionally spoke to her son over the phone. He would repeatedly ask Anakamma to come get him, telling her he was overworked. The last time she spoke to him was on April 12.

In the last week of April, Anakamma finally managed to arrange the money to get her son back.

But when she contacted the duck rearer, he initially told her that the boy had been sent elsewhere. When she kept pressing him for information, he said the boy had been hospitalised. He later said the boy ran away.

Fearing for her son, Anakamma approached the local police with the help of some tribal community leaders. A police team was formed.

During an investigation, the duck rearer admitted that the boy had died and he had secretly buried the body in Kanchipuram, NDTV reported. The accused said the boy had died of jaundice.

Tirupati Collector Venkateswar told NDTV, “There is CCTV footage to show the boy was taken to a hospital. The duck-rearer’s family says the boy died of jaundice. But he was buried secretly and his family was not informed. We are taking a serious view of that,” he said.

The man, his wife and his son were immediately arrested and a case was registered on Monday under various sections of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, Child Labour Act, Juvenile Justice Act, SC/ST Atrocities Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The body was sent for post-mortem.