Illegal immigration racket: 14 Gujarat travel agents booked

The FIR – filed by the Gujarat Police’s crime investigation department in Gandhinagar -- was based on the interrogation of 66 people on that flight

The Gujarat Police lodged a first information report against 14 so-called immigration agents for allegedly luring people to pay hefty sums for illegally migrating to the US with the promise of jobs, and may have even zeroed in on the mastermind of the scam, said a senior police official involved in the investigation.

A passenger from Nicaragua bound Airbus A340 flight that was grounded in France on suspicion of human trafficking, evades the media as he leaves the airport after his arrival, in Mumbai on December 26, 2023 (REUTERS)

The accused include two residents of Delhi and another from the United Arab Emirates who took money and helped people illegally emigrate to the US, said the official.

The grounding of the Dubai-Nicaragua Legend Airways Airbus A340 -- carrying 303 Indians -- in Vatry in France on December 21 blew the lid off a thriving racket involving private firms and touts that help people reach the US and Canada via stops in Europe and South American countries. To make the multi-hop journey, now known as the “donkey route”, the consultancies help create fake documents and paper trails.

The FIR – filed by the Gujarat Police’s crime investigation department in Gandhinagar -- was based on the interrogation of 66 people on that flight.

“The accused include Joginder alias Jogi Paaji who emerged as the main accused in the investigations carried out so far. A resident of Delhi, he seems to have been the one who was coordinating the entire scam. He has a criminal background with multiple cases being lodged against him in the past,” said a senior police official aware of the development.

“Another individual, Joginder Mansaram, also hails from Delhi, while an accused known as Salim Dubai resides in the UAE. The remaining accused individuals are from Gujarat. The complaint is based on the questioning and interrogation of the 66 passengers, and we will get more details once we nab the accused,” the official added.

The Airbus jet was allowed to return with the Indian passengers in the last week of December after French authorities questioned them for four days. Of the 303 originally on board, 276 returned, with the rest having sought asylum in France and two detained over what French police said was a human trafficking investigation.

The statements of the passengers later underlined the sweeping and systematic functioning of the illegal operation. HT has previously reported that hundreds, possibly thousands, of people transacted with a syndicate spanning several states that helped Indians enter US and Canada illegally and on forged documentation.

“The agents told the passengers that they should purposefully attract attention and be apprehended once they crossed the border and entered the US. People from Punjab were told to seek asylum by saying they are Khalistanis. For passengers from Gujarat, each one was told to make up a different story that would lead to their arrest,” said Rajkumar Pandian, additional director general of police CID-Crime and Railways, Gandhinagar.

The 66 passengers from Gujarat, who were questioned as part of the FIR, hailed from different parts of the state including Mehsana, Anand and Ahmedabad. Some of the Gujarati passengers even hailed from Mumbai.

The other accused named in the FIR include Kiran Patel, Raju Mumbai, Chandresh Patel, Sam Paji, Bhargav Darji, Sandeep Patel, Jayesh Patel, Piyush Barot and Arpit alias Michel Zala, among others, said people aware of the matter.

“Each of them admitted that they had agreed to pay ₹60 lakh to ₹80 lakh to the agents to help them cross into the US illegally after reaching Nicaragua via Dubai. These agents had instructed the passengers from Gujarat to make payments only upon reaching the US. The agents had arranged and booked air tickets for these passengers, providing USD 1,000 to 3,000 to each of the 66 passengers,” said Pandian on Friday.

The 66 passengers from Gujarat were personally contacted by the agents two to six months before the December 21 flight, said Pandian. The majority of the passengers from Gujarat studied till Class 8 and 12, and lacked the technical skills that could get them employment in US if they went legally.