Illegal immigration: Free run for agents as victims hesitant to file FIRs

In many cases, victims reach a compromise with accused, thus forcing the police to shut such cases without any headway, says a senior police official.

Even as Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar has assured in the Parliament about taking action against travel agents who duped 104 Indians deported from the United States, nothing much has been done in connection with past such cases as most of the victims have been hesitant to lodge FIRs, say officials.

200 Punjabis among 303 were deported from France year ago but only two of the victims lodged cases, says official 

In the Nicaragua-bound flight case of December 2023 in which over 300 Indians, including around 200 Punjabis, were being taken illegally to the US, the Punjab Police couldn’t do much as only two of them came forward to lodge FIRs before a special investigation team (SIT), constituted by the Punjab government, they said.

On December 21, 2023, the Nicaragua-bound flight from Dubai landed at Vatry airport in France for refueling but resulted in the plane being grounded for four days after an anonymous tip-off. The plane was sent back to India. The SIT, headed by Ferozepur SP (investigation) Randhir Kumar, comprises Ludhiana (civil lines) ACP Jasroop Kaur Baath, Ferozepur DSP (investigation) Balkar Singh Sandhu and Dalbir Singh Sidhu, deputy superintendent, Patiala headquarters.

An SIT member, seeking anonymity, said, “We have contacted more than 150 passengers but only two came forward. We even constituted teams at district levels to reach out to victims but most of them refused to register complaint.” SIT members say some victims fear that they may lose reimbursement (from travel agents) whereas many claim they had genuine documents to travel to Nicaragua for tourist purposes.

After two FIRs were registered in Amritsar district, a travel agent, Tarsem Singh, was arrested and later charges were framed against him for “duping the victims with a promise to take them to the US via donkey route via Nicaragua”. In one complaint, victim Damanpreet alleged that the accused had taken ₹42 lakh from him.

Many Gujaratis were also on the plane. According to reports from Gujarat Police, its criminal investigation department (CID) is still looking for “mastermind Guru Amrut Pal Singh, alias Pali, hailing from Jalandhar, who is suspected of having orchestrated the trafficking. Besides Pali, police are also looking for seven others. “While 12 agents, including five from Gujarat, have been arrested, Pali remains at large. The Gujarat Police, which issued a lookout notice for him, suspect he is hiding in West Asia,” an investigating officer said.

Police suspect Pali, reportedly a Canadian citizen, operated the trafficking network through agents from across India, particularly in Delhi and north Gujarat.Those arrested so far include Kiran Patel, Raju, Chandresh Patel, Sam Paji, Bhargav Darji, Sandeep Patel, Jayesh Patel, Piyush Barot and Arpit alias Michel Zala, the officer said.

An FIR was lodged against the agents based on the statements of 66 passengers from Gujarat. According to the police, the operation was valued at ₹300-325 crore. Passengers were charged between ₹70 lakh and over ₹1 crore, depending on promises made, like job guarantees and help in illegally crossing the US border.

The agents assured them that their operatives would assist in entering the US from Nicaragua via Mexico border. However, French authorities thwarted the plan before the flight could reach its destination.

According to a senior police official, in earlier cases of deportation from the US as well, it has been seen that people curse travel agents for misguiding them but when it comes to lodging complaints, they hardly do anything. The officer said that since 2010, Punjab has seen over 1,200 illegal deportees who were sent back from other countries but the victims, barring a few, have hardly complained about the travel agents.

“In many cases, even after registering FIRs, victims reach a compromise with accused, thus forcing the police to shut such cases without any headway,” said a senior police official.

Punjab SIT head Randhir Kumar, when contacted, said exchange of probes in such cases is a routine but the SIT is not aware about any people from Punjab wanted in Gujarat in cases related to the Nicaragua-bound flight.

“Someone may have been wanted for duping people from Gujarat but we don’t have any information in this regard. Regarding our probe, we have registered two FIRs and the main agent is behind the bars,” said Singh.