Deportation from US: Two more FIRs against travel agents, 10 so far: Police
Victims reluctant as agents promised them to return some money, persuading them to file plaints, says SIT; the latest FIRs were filed against six agents who allegedly deceived victims with “false promises” regarding their entry into the US.
The special investigation team (SIT), constituted by the Punjab Police for crackdown on travel agents who were behind illegal emigration that resulted in deportations from the United States last week, on Wednesday registered two more FIRs, taking the total number of such cases to 10.
The latest FIRs were filed against six agents who allegedly deceived victims with “false promises” regarding their entry into the US. The latest cases include FIR number 4 registered against Jaskaran Singh, Mahinder Singh, Hardev Kaur and Sujan Singh, all residents of Tahli in Tanda, Hoshiarpur, and FIR number 5 against Happy of Tanda in Hoshiarpur and Gill of Tarn Taran, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Emigration Act at the NRI police station, Hoshiarpur. Both cases were registered on Tuesday.
The SIT, headed by ADGP (NRI affairs) Praveen Sinha, has been investigating complaints from deportees who were defrauded by travel agents. Notably, these two FIRs were registered after personal persuasion of the deportees by the SIT members as the deportees were not interested to lodge their complaints.
“Some deportees have been assured by agents that some part of their money will be returned. This is the prime reason why most of the deportees are hesitant to register their complaints. SIT members are personally pursuing each deportee to make them register FIR to get justice,” an SIT member said.
ADGP (NRI affairs) Praveen Sinha said the NRI affairs wing and the district police are working in close coordination to ensure quick and strong action against those named in the FIRs. All forward and backward linkages shall be examined with an aim to cripple and demolish the whole network, he said.
“Of the 28 cases examined so far, we have found that all deportees had left India legally and entered into other countries on valid visas from where they exited to different routes to finally take donkeys,” said a senior member of the four-member SIT.
The probe so far has found that whereas eight people first went to Dubai whereas same number of Indians stayed in Spain. Five stayed in Italy whereas four went via UK. One each went through Guana, Suriname, Brazil and France,” the probe has revealed.
They stayed in these countries and entered US through Panama and Mexico routes using help of local conduits of the travel agents.
Headed by ADGP Praveen Sinha, the SIT comprises ADGP (internal security) Shive Kumar Verma, IGP (provisioning) S Boopathi and DIG (border range) Satinder Singh. No arrests have been made so far in the cases related to FIRs registered by police and by NRI police stations, it is learnt.
Director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav requested people to come forward with any information that could help in arresting the culprits. Public cooperation is essential in dismantling these networks, the DGP said, adding that people should also raise awareness among themselves to prevent others from falling prey to such fraudulent immigration consultants.
Detailing the trek route in the FIR, one of the deportees has recounted that they were transported by car from Guyana to Brazil from where they travelled through Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador before taking a bus to Colombia.
The donkers then loaded them into vegetable lorries and transported to Panama City. “From there, they travelled by bus through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala before reaching the Mexico-US border,” he has narrated.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants, including 30 from Punjab, landed at the Amritsar airport on February 5. This was the first batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.
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