Hyderabad: In one of the biggest human trafficking rackets exposed in the state, where at least 5,000 persons from various states were trafficked to Gulf countries, the Cyberabad police have arrested 18 persons, including an airlines employee and a police constable on Wednesday.
The Cyberabad police said that over 100 accused persons are involved in the trafficking racket who are yet to be nabbed. The accused, most of them acting as agents employed by the kingpins, have deceived the victims seeking employment abroad to earn money for their families living in the rural areas in Andhra Pradesh.
Since January this year, around 71 persons have been arrested by the RGIA police for trying to fly to Kuwait using forged visas. A special task force, which was formed at the Cyberabad commissionerate, has investigated and arrested two gangs, comprising 15 persons, besides a police constable working at the Chevella police station, a Gulf Air employee, and a former Oman Air employee on Tuesday.
The police said that the two gangs, headed by T. Kanteswara, 28, of Kadapa and G. Sasi, 28, have been issuing forged visas to the job aspirants, mostly women, to fly to Kuwait for employment.
The Cyberabad police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar explained that the gangs would initially arrange for a work visa for the aspirants and would then forge the same to make a visit visa out of it, as the aspirants did not have clearance from the Protector of Emigrants.
Sasi’s gang, on the other hand, additionally assisted the aspirants who were medically unfit to work in Kuwait by taking them to Sri Lanka, from where they were sent to Kuwait.
The commissioner said that the gangs even conducted training sessions for the aspirants to act normal if the police or immigration officials questioned them about their travel, and also taught them how to tear their visa stickers. To carry out the process, the kingpins had employed agents at the village, mandal, district, and state levels. Iron box used to remove the visa stickers.
During the investigation, the police discovered that the agents were using an iron box to remove the work visa stickers which were pasted on the passports.
“After using a mildly heated iron box to remove the sticker from the passport, they would create a forged visa with the same serial number as on the work visa. Further, with the help of the airlines’ employees, passengers were also provided fake return tickets along with forged visit visas. However, such passengers were identified and arrested,” said the commissioner.
The police seized 250 passports, fake visas, 38 cell phones, fake rubber stamps, 160 police verification certificates, 6 computers, 5 laptops, 2 printers, `5.02 lakh in cash, and records containing the data of over 5,000 persons who have already fled the country. Constable issued 500 clearance certificates illegally.
The special task force that has busted the trafficking racket has found that the police constable G. Madhu, who had made acquaintances with the accused gangs while working at the RGIA police station has assisted the gang by providing them with police clearance certificates to avail work visas. The certificates were issued illegally for `2,500.
