The suspect identified as Siddique Hussain Shaikh and his sons Arbaz and Arfat, all residents of Tembivali of Bhiwandi area of Thane in Maharashtra, had engaged a couple belonging to the Karkari community and their children for the past four years, said the official, reported the PTI on Saturday.

Quoting the victims' complaint, the official said that the trio would force them to work at their brick kiln and cut grass. The accused would starve, thrash and torture the victims whenever they asked for compensation.

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The Bhiwandi taluka police station on Friday night registered a case against Shaikh and his sons under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.

No arrests have been made yet, the official said, as per the PTI.

Meanwhile, the Paltan police in Satara district of Maharashtra have registered a case under IPC for gang rape, atrocities act and bonded labour act against five persons, including a now-arrested man who used workers to make charcoal, an official said.

A 26-year-old woman, who hails from Raigad district, had been brought to Satara district for work but was gang-raped on multiple occasions, he said. The accused held her husband and children captive as they sexually assaulted her, he said.

To escape from the clutches of the accused, the woman hid herself in a sugarcane field for an entire night. She then fled leaving behind her two kids and in-laws.

When activists of NGO Shramajivi Sanghatana, which fights for the rights of labourers, led by its working president Shena Dube-Pandit visited the location where the woman lived for two weeks and suffered on Friday, they found nobody at the spot.

The police have identified the arrested man, who is the main accused, as Balu Shekh.

(with PTI inputs)