Maharashtra ATS Busted Human Trafficking Racket

Maharashtra ATS busted a human trafficking racket, four people were arrested.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday busted a human trafficking racket by arresting four people in which Bangladeshi nationals were brought to India through the Indo-Bangladesh border.

According to the ATS, Bangladeshi nationals had to enter India by crossing the border or walking across the open border to immediately obtain an Aadhaar card in their name from a UIDAI center in Bangaon.

North 24 Parganas in West Bengal and fraudulently obtain Aadhaar cards on the basis of forged Indian documents and reach various cities in India including Mumbai.

On arrival in different cities, these illegal immigrants also obtain passports using other fake Indian documents such as birth certificates and school leaving certificates.

The ATS has so far arrested three Bangladeshi nationals including a 17-year-old minor girl.

Out of these three, accused Kajal Shaikh (28) was successful in obtaining an Indian passport on the basis of forged Indian documents, while the other two were in the process of obtaining it.

The ATS said a local person in Mumbai named Santosh Varne (52) helped the fourth accused arrested in the case get an Indian passport.

He provided fake BMC documents like birth certificates and school leaving certificates to the accused and helped them get Indian passports.

The ATS has also seized a booklet of about 100 blank school leaving certificates that do not mention the name of any school.

In this, according to the modus operandi of the racket, after filling in the details of illegal immigrants, the name of the school was stamped on the certificate.

These blank certificates are in the old format when Mumbai was known as Bombay.

According to the ATS, Sardar Shaikh alias Monjil Mandal, a resident of Sindharani village of Baghdad police station, Bangaon, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, is the leader of this human trafficking racket.

He had brought these four Bangladeshi nationals across the border to India.