While Satnam Singh, known as Navi, ended up crushed by an agricultural machine, losing an arm and fracturing his legs, Antonello Lovato of the Lovato agricultural company in via del Passo in Borgo Santa Maria in the province of Latina “was not in the grip of fear”. On the contrary. And after dumping Navi’s body in front of his house he took a shower, he washed Navi’s blood off the van and looked for two lawyers. Even though his wife Alisha known as Soni had begged him to take her husband to the hospital. This was said by a witness who spent yesterday afternoon talking to the police. The Latina prosecutor accuses Renzo Lovato’s son of manslaughter, negligence and violation of workplace safety regulations. While his wife confirmed that everyone’s cell phones were taken away to prevent them from calling for help.
The fourteenth hour
The Republic today he reconstructs what happened in the last moments before the accident. Which happened in the Lovatos’ two million euro turnover company. On the dirt road, under the trees that border the property. It is 5.20pm on Monday 17 June. Two teams of eight, all Indians, are on their fourteenth hour of work since the start of the day. The tractor pulls the plastic wrapping machine, Navi’s arm ends up stuck in the gears. And here comes the amputation.
Renzo Lovato said that his son had warned the worker not to approach the vehicle: «But he did his own thing. It was a slight, unfortunately. Which cost everyone dearly.” Lovato’s cousin, who lives in those parts, reconstructs: «Antonello panicked. He saw that blood, Navi’s wife screaming ‘home, home’. She carried him in the van and waited for the ambulance to arrive. It was the Indian corporal who convinced him to wash the minibus.”
The witness
A reconstruction that clashes with that of an Indian witness who was there at the time and spoke to the police. «Mr. Lovato was not in the grip of fear. He found the time to turn off the agricultural machine, load Satnam’s body into the van, abandon it in front of the house. He went to take a shower, washed the minibus and looked for two lawyers. Navi’s wife had begged him to take him to hospital”, are the words reported by Republic and given to the police.
While according to other testimonies he also left a piece of his arm (the other is not found) in a fruit box among the waste. Ilario Pepe, a welder, who hosted Satnam and Soni in via Genova, adds other details: «The wife shouted “my husband cut himself” and we didn’t understand. I ran into Lovato who was leaving to ask him for explanations and I understood that he didn’t want to help me: “It’s not in order”, he told me. Then I saw Satnam who was barely breathing, we thought he was dead but he could be saved »
Lovato’s version
Lovato’s version is different. Owner of land and other interests in the area, she says that Navi was paid eight and a half euros an hour and not four. She was not in compliance with the job «only because she did not have the documents. We were trying to heal him.” Satnam Singh had arrived from Naples. Landing in Italy after a crossing on the Mediterranean Sea. Fernando and Silvano are two Catholic volunteers who take care of migrants in the area. They grew up with Renzo Lovato: «he is one of the few who resisted in agriculture. We knew him as a good person, but what his son did was inhumane.” The retired colleague, who professes to be right-wing, says: «Slavery is practiced in these countryside, but it is the price we have to pay if we don’t want courgettes at 9 euros a kilo. Rights cost everyone.”
