E-Paper
Mohali police recover ₹1.5 crore from human trafficking gang
Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sandeep Garg said during the course of investigation, police recovered ₹66 lakh from the bank accounts of the five arrested human trafficking gang members, besides ₹71 lakh in cash. A Toyota Fortuner has also been seized.
Over a month after Mohali police rescued 33 immigration fraud victims who were duped, kidnapped and held captive on foreign shores by a human trafficking gang, the CIA staff of Mohali has recovered another ₹1.37 crore in cash, 2,000 US dollars and 530 gm gold from the gang members.
Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sandeep Garg said during the course of investigation, police recovered ₹66 lakh from the bank accounts of the five arrested gang members, besides ₹71 lakh in cash. A Toyota Fortuner has also been seized.
“We are working to arrest other members of the gang who are residing abroad. A few victims from Amritsar, Taran Tarn and Rajpura also approached us regarding the same gang. We coordinated with the police of their respective areas, following which cases were registered there too. Around 80 victims across the state have approached us so far,” the SSP said.
He added that a dedicated anti-human trafficking unit had also been established to resolve immigration fraud cases.
According to police, the accused used to lure residents of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh wishing to go to the US or Europe and later extorted anywhere between ₹30 and ₹40 lakh from their family members after holding them captive.
The gang members, according to SSP, used to tell the victims that they would take them to the US or Europe via Mexico and charge them only after that.
“They would then take the clients to Nepal or Indonesia, torture them and force them to call their kin to say they had reached Mexico. Once the kin paid up, the gang members, based in India, would either leave the victims in Indonesia or make them board a flight back to India,” the top cop said.
The matter came to light after one of the victims managed to contact his family in Mohali.
Those arrested so far are Baldish Kaur and Gurjit Singh, both residents of Jalandhar, and Sahil, Som Raj and Veena Kumar from Mukerian, Hoshiarpur.
Following their arrest, the CIA team had recovered ₹2.13 crore cash and 640 gm gold, apart from four cars and seven mobile phones used in the crime.
