Man on a leash crawls on all fours; video viral

Kochi: The video of a man crawling on all fours across a room, led by a handler on a leash, and drinking water from a bowl like a dog at a private firm in Perumbavoor has gone viral, prompting authorities to act. Visuals also showed several other men being forced to undress as part of the brutal punishment by employers.

Ernakulam labour department has begun an inquiry to trace the video's veracity after state labour minister V Sivankutty sought a report. "Kerala is a state that implements labour laws strictly. No kind of labour harassment will be allowed. The Ernakulam labour officer has been asked to investigate the incident and submit a report. Other steps will be taken based on the report," he said.

Ernakulam department officials said they found the house, where the incident is said to have taken place, is at Arakkapady in Perumbavoor.

"It appears to be a sales firm which does door-to-door sale of goods. Our initial inquiries revealed that there has not been any male employee at the firm for the last three months and that only women staffers are there. We will speak to each one of them," an official said. One of the young men seen in the video told labour officials that the video was shot by an employee who was a drug addict, who has since been dismissed.

Meanwhile, the city and rural police officials began an investigation into the firm against which a complaint was registered earlier this year. The city police inspected the firm's establishment at Palarivattom and said no complaint has been received against the firm or its officials regarding this video. An official added that the kind of flooring seen in the video was not seen in the building at Palarivattom.

Perumbavoor police said they received a complaint about not being given the promised salary from a franchise of the firm but not about offences seen in the video. The owner of the franchise was arrested earlier this year and remanded based on a woman employee's complaint that he sexually assaulted her. Police said another employee filed a complaint that he faced workplace harassment and that he was directed to approach the labour department.

Kerala state youth commission has initiated suo motu proceedings and requested a report from the district police chief regarding the brutal exploitation of workers in the video.