Delhi Police busts Rohingya trafficking racket
Delhi Police has busted a racket engaged in trafficking Rohingyas from Myanmar through Bangladesh to parts of India and other foreign countries. Two men, including an agent from Myanmar’s Rakhine, were arrested from Hyderabad after a Myanmar couple who had flown to Russia on fake Indian passports were sent back to New Delhi. The racket, run from Bangladesh, also arranged fake Aadhaar and PAN cards for the couple, Times of India reports.
While many were sent to different states, including Delhi, the others, who had money to spare, were sent to other foreign countries. The gang was offering a packaged deal for 10 lakh Bangladeshi takas for each individual, police said. Two men, including an agent belonging to Rakhine state in Myanmar, have been arrested and hunt is on for others.
The arrested men have been identified as Nurul alias Noor Alam and Abdul Gaffar alias Arka Roy. The racket was busted after a 30- year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were deported from Russia on an Aeroflot flight on Feb 22. The man was holding a passport in the name of Shuvojit Das and the woman had documents in the name of Babita. Investigations revealed that their real names were Toha and Rabiya and they were citizens of Myanmar.
The passports were issued from the regional passport office of Kolkata and both had left for Russia from Delhi airport on Feb 20. The deportees revealed that they had been lured by Alam into paying for Indian documents. The man claimed to have sold all of his family jewellery and paid Alam.
“The agent facilitated their illegal entry into India through Agartala border. Thereafter, they visited Sealdah, Barasat and Hridayapur in West Bengal for several days before Alam and his associates managed to get them Aadhaar and PAN cards, and the passports were issued in their names fraudulently,” deputy commissioner of police (airport) Usha Rangnani said.
The cops traced Alam to Hyderabad, and a special team led by inspector Raj Kumar Yadav arrested him and his aide, Gaffar, from the airport there. Alam told police that he had been running the racket from Bangladesh while his associate, Sheikh Arif Ali, was operating it from West Bengal.
Ali was working in a company that updated the data of Aadhaar Cards. An expert in Photoshop and other editing apps, he used to forge documents for the gang. Gaffar said he had also made forged documents through Alam and was trying for a work visa.
