Nine held for illegally transporting migrants in Punjab

The accused charged Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 per person and used Tempo Travellers and Toyota Innova of a Tanda-based taxi owner to transport the migrants to their home states amid coronavirus pandemic

Police, on Friday, arrested nine people for facilitating illegal passage of stranded migrants to Bihar and UP on fake curfew passes by charging hefty sums from beneficiaries.

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As per the FIR lodged at Tanda police station, the accused charged Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 per person and used Tempo Travellers and Toyota Innova of a Tanda-based taxi owner to transport the migrants to their home states amid coronavirus pandemic.

The arrested persons include Satnam Singh and Gaurav Kumar of Tanda, RaviKumar of Santokh Nagar, Chander Mohan of Miani, Ajay Pal, Kamal Mehra, Pankaj Kumar and Vishal Vohra of Hoshiarpur and Sukhwinder Singh of Allowal village.

“Accused photoshopped curfew pass issued by SDM Batala and pasted them on the windscreens of the vehicles. The drivers even kept additional copies of the pass with them which they showed at every checkpost while crossing borders in every state,” said SSP Gaurav Garg.

He said 71 persons had been illegally transported to Lucknow, Saharanpur and Gonda in Bihar with a consideration of around Rs 3.5 lakh.

“We have impounded three Tempo Travellers, two Innova cars, a printer and five fake passes from the accused and booked them under the Indian Penal Code, the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Act,” the SSP said.