Police today arrested local leader of a head-load workers' union for demanding "ghost wages" by members of his unit from an IAS officer without doing any work for her.
The unit convener of the union affiliated to a prominent pro-Left trade union in the city was arrested after the workers allegedly kept on pressing for money from the woman IAS officer without rendering any job for her, police sources said.
The civil servant was recently transferred here from a town in north Kerala. She had brought some household articles in a small truck and declined the offer of the workers who approached her for unloading them.
The workers then said whether she engaged them or not she would have to pay the wages which were due to the head-load workers in the area.
After that, they kept on visiting her residence asking for money. The officer lodged a complaint with the city police, based on which the unit convener of the union was arrested.
The union leader was charged under section 384 (Extortion), 385 (putting person in fear to commit extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation). He was later produced in a local court and remanded to judicial custody, police said.
Ghost wages, known in local parlance as "nookku coolie", is banned in the state.
