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Flight from France: Punjab Police form SIT to probe human trafficking charges
Punjab Police is also in touch with central agencies, and agencies of other states on the issue, said a senior official, who is part of the SIT
Punjab Police on Friday formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe charges of human trafficking in the case of Punjabi passengers, who were sent back to India by France from a Nicaragua-bound flight.
Of the 303 passengers who were on a plane operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines in Dubai last week, 70% are from Punjab, most of them in their mid-20s and early 30s. They were bound for Nicaragua but a refuelling stopover at Vatry airport in northeastern France on December 21 resulted in the plane being grounded for four days after an anonymous tipoff.
According to the list, accessed by HT, most of the passengers have Punjabi surnames. The aircraft, an Airbus A340, took off from Vatry airport and landed in Mumbai shortly after 4 am on December 26, officials said. Immigration authorities questioned some of the 276 passengers but no one was detained and the passengers were allowed to leave the airport by 11.30 am.
Police in Gujarat have already started probing whether there was an agency or an organised syndicate behind sending hundreds of people to Dubai and then to Nicaragua and whether it was a case of trafficking as alleged by the French police
This suspected illegal migration is often referred to as the ‘donkey route’ devised from the Punjabi word “dunki”, which means to hop from place to place. It refers to an illegal method in which people cross a country’s borders through a back-door route with multiple stops in other countries – with the last leg often being a treacherous land or sea crossing.
SIT asks victims to come forward
The SIT headed by the superintendent of police, investigation, Randhir Kumar will comprise Jasroop Kaur Baath, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Civil Lines, Ludhiana; Balkar Singh Sandhu, deputy superintendent of police, investigation, Ferozepur; and Dalbir Singh Sidhu, DSP, Patiala headquarters.
On the mandate given by Punjab Police headquarters, the SIT has appealed to the victims to come forward with their complaints.
“First information reports (FIRs) will be registered promptly to set the law in motion. Victims can lodge their complaints at the anti-human trafficking unit in their districts or can contact the special investigation team,” the SIT said.
Punjab Police is also in touch with central agencies, and agencies of other states on the issue, said a senior official, who is part of the SIT.
The list of passengers sent back by France shows that nearly 70% of them are from Punjab, 25% from Gujarat and the rest from other parts of the country.
Gujarat cops question 21 passengers
The Gujarat Police has already questioned at least 21 passengers who returned to Ahmedabad. The passengers are being questioned at the Gandhinagar Crime Investigation Department (CID) Police Bhawan and officials aware of the matter said while all of them claimed they were on a legitimate trip for tourism and had valid documents, they offered names of agents who booked their travel, giving potential new leads to the investigators.
“They have revealed a list of private travel agents and consultants who facilitated their travel. However, they have not complained against anyone and said they were only going to travel and had plans to return. They said they have not done anything illegal or taken any illegal route to travel to Nicaragua,” said a CID officer asking not to be named. He added that the group of people, though unrelated, were in contact with lawyers and appeared to be on the same page.
Vast and coordinated network: Cops
Police in Gujarat have also arrested two people in connection with a running investigation into such syndicates, and the two have purportedly disclosed details that corroborate the theory that the flight was part of the racket. These suspects, and complaints by relatives of some of the other passengers, have shared details that suggest the operations were vast and coordinated and involved forgeries of various sorts of documents needed to secure visas and even rigging of IELTS tests.
HT reported on December 28 how such rackets charge between ₹70-80 lakh per person for the journey, which in its last leg usually involves a land crossing through the porous US-Mexico border, or via sea through other South American nations such as Nicaragua.
A family member of one of the 276, who returned to their home in Punjab, told HT that they were to pay agents in tranches which is usually ₹3-5 lakh at the beginning. The person’s kin, not willing to divulge more details fearing police action said that they had paid ₹4 lakh to an agent for the work permit to Dubai. “The next instalment was to be paid when the person would have reached Nicaragua and another one was due when he would have reached Mexico. The final was to be paid on reaching the final destination (the US),” the person said.
