Indore Police on Saturday found 18 people, most of them migrant workers, crammed inside a cement mixer-laden truck headed towards Uttar Pradesh from Maharashtra, an official said.
All of them were sent to a shelter for medical examination and a bus was being organised for their further transit, he said.
A video of workers emerging from the small hole of the cement-mixer in the presence of police has gone viral on social media.
"During the routine check-up at Panth Piplai village, about 35 km from Indore, we stopped a truck laden with a cement-mixer on suspicion. After opening the lid, we found 18 people inside," Traffic Police sub inspector Amit Kumar Yadav told PTI.
He said the 18 people included fourteen migrant labourers and four employees of the truck owner.
He said the labourers had been trying to reach their native state Uttar Pradesh from Maharashtra, as they found no work due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Yadav said the workers had boarded the truck on Friday.
"They all were sent to a shelter for medical examination. A bus is also being arranged to send them to Uttar Pradesh," he said.
A first information report has been registered against the truck driver under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Yadav added.
The central government recently allowed movement of stranded labourers, tourists and students from one state to another on permission of local authorities.
The Maharashtra government on Friday and Saturday ran two special trains carrying migrant workers to Bhopal and Lucknow.
