Maharashtra ATS busts human trafficking racket, four arrested
India Today
The ATS arrested four persons, including three Bangladeshi nationals and a 17-year-old girl, from Mumbai.
The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra has busted a human trafficking racket involving Bangladeshi nationals who were brought to India via the Indo-Bangla border, an official said on Monday.
The ATS has arrested three Bangladeshi nationals, including a 17-year-old girl and a fourth accused from Mumbai.
According to the ATS, the modus operandi was to bring the Bangladeshi nationals to India by crossing the border either on foot by cutting the border-fence or by walking in through the open border to immediately obtain Aadhar Cards in their names from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) centre in Bangaon, North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, based on forged documents. They were then sent to various cities across India, including Mumbai.
On reaching various cities, these illegal immigrants obtain other forged Indian documents like birth certificates and school leaving certificates, using which they further obtain Indian passports, the above-cited official said.
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"One of the accused, a 28-year-old girl, had succeeded in getting an Indian passport based on forged documents, whereas two others were about to obtain the same. A local person in Mumbai named Santosh Varne, 52, is the fourth accused arrested. He has established himself as a passport agent for eight to ten years and supplied forged BMC (civic body) documents like birth certificates and school leaving certificates to the accused. ATS seized a booklet of around 100 blank school leaving certificates which are generic and do not mention any school name," the official said.
"The name of the school used to be stamped on the certificates after filling in the details of the illegal immigrants. These blank school leaving certificates were in the old format when the name of Mumbai was Bombay. This was done to make the verification difficult," the official added.
