Human trafficking racket busted by Maharashtra ATS; 3 Bangladeshis, 1 Mumbaikar held

Representative image

Four people have been arrested in connection with a human trafficking racket in which Bangladeshi nationals were being brought into India illegally, a Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad official said on Monday.

The modus operandi was to get nationals from the neighbouring country into India through the open border or by cutting barbed wire fencing, after which they would obtain Aadhaar Cards from a UIDAI centre in Bangaon in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, the official said.

"These people would then spread out into various cities of India, obtain more documents fraudulently and finally manage to get Indian passports made in their names. We have arrested three Bangladeshi nationals, including a 17-year-old girl. Of these, accused Kajal Sheikh has already managed to get herself an Indian passport," he said.

Mumbai resident Santosh Varne (52), who claims to be a passport agent for the past eight to ten years, has been arrested for supplying these people with forged civic documents, school certificates etc, the official said.

"We have seized a booklet having 100 blank School Leaving Certificates, on which the name and seal of schools used to be stamped by the accused. These blank school leaving certificates are in old format when Mumbai was called Bombay, and this has been done to make verification difficult," he added.

He said one Sardar Shaikh alias Monjil Mondal, a resident of Sindhrani under Bagdah police station limits in Bangaon in WB's North 24 Parganas, was the kingpin of the racket.

He is a history-sheeter, with four cases against his name, including for offences like cutting border fencing and human trafficking, the official said, adding that efforts were on to nab him.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.