Investigators probing the human trafficking racket at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad have found that a police constable from Chevella police station used to charge Rs 2,250 for issuing a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC).
The constable, who is presently working as a writer at a police station, came in contact with travel agent Thota Kanteswara alias Manikanta from Kadapa district while working at the RGIA police station. He used to charge Rs 2,250 per PCC from Manikanta.
Manikanta used to send details of passengers after which the constable used to prepare PCC and obtain it through Mee Seva. The constable would personally hand over the PCCs to Manikanta at particular pillar number beneath the PV Narasimha Rao Expressway in Mehdipatnam.
In all, 12 travel agents and a taxi driver were arrested in the racket. Explaining in detail about the gang’s modus operandi, police sources said the arrested travel agents would take advantage of women aged between 25 and 45 years intending to work in Kuwait as maid servants or housekeeping staff from East and West Godavari, Krishna, Kadapa and adjoining districts.
According to provisions of Immigration Act, unskilled women or workers shall comply with four norms – passport valid for minimum of six months with a valid visa, employment contract from the foreign employer duly attested by the Indian Mission or permission letter from the Indian Mission/Post concerned, challan and insurance policy under Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana.
They must obtain emigration check required (ECR) clearance from the Protector of Emigrants if they are not educated enough. If they fail to comply with these norms, their travel and stay is illegal. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also treats emigrants outside the emigrate platform as illegal.
However, these travel agents, in order to avoid legal channel, found a few loopholes in the existing system and were operating in all major airports across India but primarily at the RGIA.
The second modus operandi that came to light was that the local agent would get PCC, visas and passports of passengers, who have been deemed medically unfit and hand them over to another group consisting of Sai from Andhra Pradesh, Maulana of Sri Lanka and Babu from Chennai.
Then Sai, who was acting as a courier between Sri Lanka and India, would hand over the documents to Maulana for further processing. Maulana would arrange stickers of job visas to be affixed in the passport.
The medically unfit passengers will board the flight from Hyderabad to Sri Lanka and then to Kuwait. Sai will make necessary arrangements for the stay of passengers in Sri Lanka and for picking up and dropping them at the airport.
The arrested travel agents include Manikanta, Puspathi Ramakrishna, Lebaku Vinay Kumar, Pasupuleti Venkata Subba Rayudu and Shaik Akram, all natives of Kadapa district; Geddam Sasi of West Godavari, Chintala Sai Ram Kumar of Vijayawada, Shaik Kadhar Basha from Mehdipatnam, Potala Surender, Anugol Anil Kumar and Mallem Narasimha, all residents of Masab Tank, and, taxi driver P Yugender from Masab Tank, and Aakaram Balakrishna of Balanagar.
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