19 June,2017 05:59 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Mumbai police officials have arrested a Jogeshwari couple for allegedly smuggling two kids to the USA using passports of their own children
Representational picture
Officials of Bandra-Kurla Complex police station arrested a Mumbai couple for allegedly smuggling two anonymous children to the USA last April.
According to a report in Times of India, Azhar Qureshi (42) and his wife Nirmala (35) smuggled two kids to the US using passports of their own kids. The couple was paid Rs. 5 lakh for committing the crime.
According to the police, American consulate officials filed a complaint after it was found that Nirmala left for US with 'her kids', but after a few days returned back to India without 'them'. "The consulate officials found something amiss when Nirmala returned to India by herself," a police officer was quoted saying to the publication.
Consulate officials smelt something fishy when Nirmala's husband Azhar applied for a work visa in the US, which got rejected afterwards. According to the officer, though Azhar was granted a work visa in the first instance, it was later cancelled after his employer revealed that they did not issue him any such work permit.
"The consulate lodged a complaint on June 8 got the Qureshi couple arrested. They have confessed to trafficking the two children by using their children's passports to fly the children out," the officer told the website. He also added that an investigation is on to find out the trafficked kids. Zakir Shaikh, Firoz Shaikh, and Riyaz Nagpurwala were three other agents who were involved in the alleged smuggling case. Police tracked them based on information provided by Nirmala and Azhar.
