Child Trafficking: Most kids trafficked from Gujarat, says senior official
Bengaluru: The city police, who busted the racket involved in child trafficking to the US and arrested a 16-member gang, are yet to question the arrested persons to get more details about their operation.
It is said that more number of people are involved in the racket and efforts are on to nab them. Official sources said the city police had received a tip off by the Intelligence Bureau and Gujarat police about the racket.
“We had information about such a racket for the last few months. Most children who were trafficked are from Gujarat and we are yet to find whether any child in the city was trafficked by this gang to US,” a senior official said.
“The information we have got so far is that the parents in US, who are staying there illegally, used to contact an agent there, who in turn contacted his associates in India and gave them the details of the child to be illegally transported to the US. The agent in the US used to get huge money and he used to pay the arrested people from that share. However, it is strongly suspected that the accused people created the fake passports in the city and we are digging out more information on this. Though, all the accused were arrested from Bengaluru, most of the children they illegally transported to US hailed from Gujarat,” the official said.
“We are focusing on how the arrested persons operated, from where they got the fake documents and passports. It has come to light that one of the accused was arrested for human trafficking earlier,” the official added.
However, the investigators are not sure whether the accused illegally transported the children with the only motive to reunite them with their parents.
“Until a thorough interrogation takes place, we can’t confirm the status of the children who are trafficked. Though the accused claim that they have been reunited with their parents, the possibility of the kids being sold to other agents for other purposes can’t be ruled out,” he pointed.
The police have also decided to write to the US Consulate General to get more information on the children who are illegally transported.
“It will be a tough job to find out the whereabouts of the children as they were all transported on fake credentials. Only the arrested persons have to reveal it,” he added.
Working with police: US Consulate
“While we cannot comment on the course of ongoing investigations, the U.S. Consulate General Chennai takes seriously all allegations of fraudulent visa applications and we are working closely with Bengaluru authorities regarding this alleged human smuggling ring. On the issue of visas, visa records are confidential under U.S. law and we cannot disclose the details of individual visa cases,” a Public Affairs Officer in the US Consulate General office in Chennai replied to an e-mail query by DC.
