Chandigarh-The Punjab Police on Friday constituted a four-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the issue of human trafficking and illegal migration, two days after a US military flight carrying 104 deportees landed in Amritsar. Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said Additional Director General of Police (NRI wing) Parveen Sinha would head the probe team, which included ADGP (Internal Security) Shive Verma, IGP (Provisioning) S Boopathi and DIG (Border Range) Satinder Singh.
In a statement, the DGP said the team had been tasked with taking appropriate action as per law against any person found involved in facilitating illegal migration or human trafficking. The DGP said the team had been empowered to co-opt any other police officer in the inquiry and would maintain coordination with the senior superintendents of police and commissioners of police concerned. All city and district police chiefs have been directed to provide the required assistance and infrastructural facilities to the team, he added.
The move has come amid the demand for action against the travel agents promising migration to foreign countries through illegal pathways. Of the 104 US deportees, the maximum 33 each belonged to Gujarat and Haryana while 30 were from Punjab. Many of those deported have said that they were duped by travel agents who took them to the US through the “donkey route” — an illegal pathway used by emigrants to enter the country while crossing multiple countries negotiating with security challenges.
Families of several deportees have alleged that the travel agents charged them up to Rs 50 lakh to send their children abroad through legal ways but then ended up forcing them to undertake months-long arduous journey to the US. According to their relatives, even connecting through phone wasn’t possible for prolonged periods after they were duped by travel agents, many of whom had promised a safe passage to the country, and that too in a legal way.