‘Donkey route’: Four Bangladeshi citizens among 9 arrested

Police received a tip-off that a Bangladeshi national living illegally in India and involved in trafficking activities will arrive in Mayur Vihar on January 5

Delhi Police has busted an international network that used to allegedly send people to European countries via India using the “donkey” route and arrested nine people, including four Bangladeshi nationals, in this connection, officials aware of the matter said on Monday. As many as 226 passports were recovered from the possession of the suspects, they added.

Police recovered 226 passports from the suspects. (HT Photo)

The “donkey” route is an illegal immigration technique used for unauthorised entry into countries.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (east) Achin Garg said that the four Bangladeshi suspects were identified as Mohammed Ali Akbor, 49, Mohammed Anwar Kazi, 22, Mohammed Younus Khan, 42, and Mohammed Kholilur Rahman, 24. The remaining suspects were Mohammed Ibraheem, 44, from Bihar, Mohammed Modassir Khan, 33, from Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, Dheeraj Kumar Bishnoi, 26, from Rajasthan, Gaurav Gulati, 22, from Faridabad and Narendra Arya, 44, from Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar.

Police said that they received a tip-off that a Bangladeshi national, who was allegedly living in India illegally and was involved in trafficking activities, will arrive in Mayur Vihar on January 5. A team was formed and three people, including Anwar and Kholilur, were apprehended. The third man was let off on the same day as he had valid documents.

Anwar showed a valid passport, which mentioned that he had to “Face Greece Visa Application Centre New Delhi’. But when his phone was checked, it was found that he was in touch with multiple traffickers and agents. Kholilur, however, did not have any original travel documents, investigators said.

After interrogating Anwar, police arrested Akbar, Younus and Ibraheem from Sarita Vihar. “All the arrested people said that they overstayed in Delhi with the hope of going to any European country through a ‘donkey network’. They also disclosed that the traffickers were working on a large scale in collaboration with a manpower consultancy in Dhaka,” Garg said. He added that notary documents of Bangladesh of 150 individuals, 50 Bangladesh Police clearance certificates and multiple other incriminating articles, including diaries and list of victims, were recovered from the possession of the three suspects.

Garg said that Akbar and Ibraheem allegedly revealed that their Bangladesh-based chief runs a manpower consultancy and lures people who wishes to go to European countries using the donkey routes through India. They are charged between ₹1lakh to ₹5lakh for countries like Slovakia and Czech Republic. “Charges for the USA are higher,” he added.

“The victims are brought to India as Bangladesh does not have a Greece embassy. The suspects tells them that the process of getting visa for the European country of their choice is underway. Once their visas get expired, the suspects assure them of providing Aadhaar and PAN cards to them to make their stay in India seamless,” a police official who did not want to be named said.

Police then arrested Modassir who was allegedly creating fake work permits on Akbar’s behest. Akbar was allegedly procuring fake work permits that are made by a consultancy service, being operated by Arya and Bishnoi, at Netaji Subhash Place. They were both arrested, police said.

On January 10, police arrested Gulati who told them that he was a multimedia professional and was working for a salary of ₹18,000. He used to edit the documents for Arya and Bishnoi and claimed that he wasn’t aware that it was illegal to do so.