Three arrested for trafficking and cheating merchant navy applicant

MUMBAI: Three people were arrested for human trafficking and allegedly swindling a 22-year-old man from Nashik of Rs3.50lakh — a sum they charged for promising him

MUMBAI: Three people were arrested for human trafficking and allegedly swindling a 22-year-old man from Nashik of Rs3.50lakh — a sum they charged for promising him a merchant navy job in Dubai.

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The three men were identified as Shashi Bhushan Sharayu Singh, 36, Dhirajkumar alias Manojkumar Singh, 23, and Abhilash Korde, 23.

The victim, Bhushan Rajendra Jadhav, from Panchavati in Nashik, completed his diploma in nautical engineering from TS Chanakya, a Navi Mumbai institute. In April 2015, while looking for a job, Jadhav was introduced to Shashi, the director of a recruitment agency at Kopri in Thane, said Ravindra Daundkar, senior police inspector in the anti-human trafficking cell, Thane. The agent promised a job in Dubai and asked Jadhav to pay Rs3.50 lakh for legal documents, Daundkar said. To pay for the documents, Jadhav’s father sold his Nashik land. “The victim was asked to pay Rs80,000 to an agent in that country. He was assured that from Iran he will be taken to Dubai,” added Daundkar.

At Bushehr Airport in Iran, he paid the promised amount to the agent. Two other agents then took him to an isolated place where he saw 25 other people from India. “There, he was tortured and made to slog all day. He had to catch fish,” the police said. After six months of confinement, Jadhav managed to escape in February . On July 30, he lodged a complaint and the three men were arrested in three weeks.