Indian Worker Dies in Farm Accident in Italy, Landowner Arrested

Italian police arrested a farm owner on Tuesday, suspecting him of homicide after an undocumented Indian worker died from severe blood loss when his arm was severed by farm machinery. Prosecutors stated that the landowner abandoned the injured worker and did not call for an ambulance. The death of Satnam Singh shocked Italians and led to protests by unions and farm workers, who are demanding better working conditions. There have been increasing calls to end the exploitative “caporalato” system, which uses underpaid migrant labor in Italy’s agriculture sector. President Sergio Mattarella also commented on the case, condemning the “cruel” exploitation of workers like Singh and the “inhuman” conditions faced by seasonal farmhands in Italy.

Carabinieri police in Latina, an agricultural area south of Rome, arrested farm owner Antonello Lovato after prosecutors upgraded the initial charge from manslaughter to homicide with “malice afterthought,” according to a statement from Latina prosecutors. This decision came after a forensic report revealed that Singh died from “copious blood loss” and that he “most likely” would have survived if he had received immediate medical care. However, no ambulance was called right after Singh’s arm was torn off by a nylon-wrapping machine.

According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the arrest warrant signed by Judge Giuseppe Molfese stated that Lovato was operating the tractor pulling the nylon-wrapping machine and then left the bleeding Singh outside his home. Italian news reports mentioned witnesses who claimed that Lovato ignored requests from Singh’s wife, who also worked on the farm, to call an ambulance, insisting that Singh was already dead. A neighbor eventually called an ambulance, and Singh was taken to San Camillo hospital in Rome, where he was declared dead about two days later.

Latina prosecutors said that Singh’s condition after the injury was so severe that it was clear he needed immediate medical attention. The statement read, “At the present time, therefore, it must be held that the decision to omit the necessary care constituted acceptance of the risk of the lethal event and united the cause that directly resulted in death.”