Days after the statements of passengers in the infamous Nicaragua-bound flight were recorded, the Gujarat Police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 14 immigration agents for reportedly being involved in human trafficking. The agents — spread across Gujarat, Mumbai and New Delhi — allegedly lured people from Gujarat and Punjab and were set to get them into the U.S. illegally. The plan had been to fly them to Nicaragua and then Mexico, from where they would cross the border to enter the U.S.
The FIR was lodged after interrogating over 60 passengers who returned after the flight landed in Mumbai last month. The Police have discovered an international network of agents engaged in this operation, offering illegal immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border and the help of attorneys in the U.S. thereon. The agents would also help them find jobs in businesses run by Indians.
The interrogation with passengers revealed that the agents had obtained for them visitor visas — for 30 to 90 days — for Dubai, from where they were to be flown to Nicaragua in a chartered plane, a release issued by the CID (Crime) Branch stated.
“It’s an international racket involving agents in Gujarat, other parts of India and outside India who are involved in facilitating such large-scale organised smuggling of people from India to USA,” said Additional DG, CID (Crime), S. Pandia Rajkumar.
He added that the Police are still in the preliminary stage of the investigation and more details about the role of other agents will emerge as the case progresses.
“We are gathering or collecting details from various agencies from across the country, it’s not an isolated incident. There are people based in Dubai and even in USA helping in facilitating this illegal migration from India,” he told The Hindu.
The investigation revealed that the agents had charged the passengers anywhere from ₹60-80 lakh and a part of the money was paid in advance; the rest would have been settled in instalments once they had reached the destination.
“The agents would tutor these people that if they get caught while crossing the border, they would seek asylum citing harassment. If people from Punjab would be caught, they were told to say they were Khalistanis, while people from Gujarat would cite some other excuse,” the release said.
The agents named in the FIR include Jogendra aka Jaggi Paaji and Joginder Manasram from Delhi, Raja Bhai and Raju Panchal from Mumbai and Salim from Dubai.
The other accused are Chandresh Patel, Kiran Patel, Bhargav Darji, Sandip Patel, Piyush Barot, Arpitsinh Zala, Biren Patel, Jayesh Patel and Sam Paaji.
They were booked on the charges of human trafficking under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 370, destroying evidence (section 201) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B).
“Based on the statements of passengers from Gujarat, we have identified and booked 14 agents for human trafficking. Since they had forced the passengers to delete audio files and other trip-related contents from the mobile phones, we have also added section 201. Each passenger had agreed to pay ₹60 lakh to ₹80 lakh to these agents,” Mr. Pandia told media persons in Gandhinagar.
He added that agents closely working with those in the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua and Dubai had sent several people to Nicaragua on three different trips in December alone, excluding the flight that was grounded in France.
The Nicaragua-bound aircraft carrying 303 Indian passengers was grounded in France for four days over suspicions of human trafficking last month. It landed in Mumbai on December 26 with 276 passengers, after 27 had sought asylum in France. The 66 passengers from Gujarat were questioned by the CID (Crime).
As per the plan devised by the agents, the passengers from Gujarat had reached Dubai on valid tourist visas from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi between December 10 and 20. As directed by the agents, these passengers boarded the Nicaragua-bound aircraft of a private airline at the Fujairah International Airport on December 21.
