Italian landowner arrested in death of Indian farm worker – Firstpost

Italian police on Tuesday arrested the employer of an Indian farm worker who was left to die on the street after a farming tool severed his arm.

Antonello Lovato has been arrested for the joint murder of Satnam Singh, who was injured while working on a farm in Latina, a rural area south of Rome where tens of thousands of Indian agricultural workers work.

Satnam Singh’s death has shocked Italians and sparked protests by unions and farm workers demanding better working conditions and an end to the exploitative “caporalato” system that uses underpaid migrant workers in Italy’s agricultural industry.

Last week, India called on Italy to take immediate action against those responsible for the death of a 31-year-old Indian worker who died after being dumped on the street by his employer without medical attention after his arm was severed by heavy farm machinery.

Even President Sergio Mattarella commented on the case, pointing to what he called the “cruel” exploitation of workers like Singh and the “inhuman” conditions in which seasonal workers often work in Italy.

Carabinieri police in Latina, an agricultural province south of Rome, arrested farm owner Antonello Lovato after prosecutors upgraded the initial suspicion of manslaughter to manslaughter “with malicious intent,” the Latina prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

They did so after the medical examiner’s office determined that Singh died of “excessive blood loss.” The medical examiner’s report concluded that he “most likely” would have survived if he had received prompt medical attention, prosecutors said in the statement.

But apparently an ambulance was not called immediately after Singh’s arm was torn off because it got caught in a nylon winding machine.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted the arrest warrant signed by Judge Giuseppe Molfese, which said Lovato drove the tractor that pulled the nylon packaging machine and then left the bleeding Singh outside his house.

Italian news reports reported witnesses saying Lovato refused requests from Singh’s wife, who also worked on the farm, to call an ambulance, saying he was already dead.

State broadcaster RAI interviewed a neighbor who eventually called an ambulance. Singh was taken to San Camillo Hospital in Rome, where he was pronounced dead about two days later.

In their statement, Latina prosecutors said Singh’s condition after the injury was so serious that he clearly needed immediate medical attention.

“It must therefore be assumed at this stage that the decision not to provide the necessary care represented an acceptance of the risk of a fatal event and did not take into account the cause that immediately led to death,” the statement said.

There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the law firms of Stefano Perotti and Valerio Righi, identified by RAI as Lovato’s lawyers.

RAI quoted Lovato’s father Renzo as saying Singh had been warned not to get so close to the equipment. He said Singh had “taken the warning too lightly” and his attitude “will cost everyone dearly”.

Last month, Italian Prime Minister Meloni said Singh, one of thousands of Indian immigrants working in the country’s fields, had been the victim of “inhuman acts.” “These are inhuman acts that do not belong to the Italian people. I hope that this barbarism will be severely punished,” she said last week after a cabinet meeting.

With inputs from agencies.

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