Italian employer held for Punjabi labourer’s death

Rome, July 3

Italian police have arrested the owner of the agriculture company who dumped a 31-year-old Punjabi worker on the road without medical assistance after his arm was severed by heavy farm machinery, causing his death, a tragic incident that shocked the country and its leadership.

Satnam Singh was abandoned by his employer after a strawberry wrapping machine severed his arm in Lazio, near Rome, last month and died due to “copious bleeding”, the ANSA news agency reported.

The Sikh casual farm labourer died in a hospital in Rome two days later after being airlifted there when he was eventually found.

Police held the alleged gangmaster, Antonello Lovato, on suspicion of causing Satnam’s death, the report said. Prosecutors said the Sikh farmer, who died of a massive haemorrhage in a Rome hospital, “would in all likelihood have been saved if he had been promptly assisted”.

On June 26, India asked Italy to take prompt action against those responsible for Singh’s death.

Muktesh Pardeshi, Secretary (CPV & OIA), conveyed to Luigi Maria Vignali, the Director General for Italian Citizens Abroad and Migration Policies, India’s “deep concern” about the death of Singh, the Indian Embassy in Italy said in a post on X.