Four men, including an auto-rickshaw driver, were arrested by the Flower Bazaar police for allegedly abducting five migrant workers from Bihar, who had arrived in Chennai in search of employment, and selling them for forced labour in Ambattur. The police said Sadhu Kumar, 24, and four of his relatives reached Chennai Central Railway Station on Sunday, after a relative, employed as a construction worker in the city, promised them jobs. The group hired an auto-rickshaw near Walltax Road in Elephant Gate to travel to Pattaravakkam.Instead of taking them to their destination, the driver allegedly diverted the vehicle towards the East Coast Road. When the victims’ relative, Nandumanchi, called to check on their whereabouts, the phone was handed to the driver.As Nandumanchi could not speak Tamil, he connected the call to his employer, Narendran. The driver allegedly demanded ₹7,500 through an online payment app for the workers’ release, claiming they had been kidnapped. He switched off his phone after making the demand.Narendran immediately lodged a complaint with the Flower Bazaar police. A special team of police analysed CCTV footage and tracked the auto-rickshaw to Foreshore Estate, where the driver, Napoleon, was arrested.During interrogation, Napoleon allegedly confessed that he and his associates had targeted newly arrived migrant workers to extort money from their relatives.Investigators said that after the auto-rickshaw ran out of fuel, Napoleon and his associates — Mani, 40, Narayana Moorthy, 38, and Mahendran, 39, — shifted the five men to another vehicle and allegedly sold them to a labour agent for ₹8,000 per person. The agent allegedly took the workers to a company in Ambattur, where they were forced to carry out menial work.The police rescued all five victims and reunited them with their relative. The four accused were produced before the George Town court and remanded in judicial custody. Published - June 30, 2026 09:26 pm IST