The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two cases of trafficking in young women and children to Kenya and the United States.
The first case was registered on Thursday on a complaint lodged by the U.S. Embassy, in which five people have been named as accused. They have been identified as Balraj Singh, Gagan Gupta, Chetan Sabharwal and Lovepreet Singh.
It is alleged that in August 2017, Gagan Gupta attempted to take four minor children to the U.S. on the passports of others. They were shown as students of a school in Punjab. However, suspecting that something was amiss, the United Airlines security officials did not allow them to board the flight at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and they were turned away.
Later, during an inquiry by the Embassy officials, the father of one of the children disclosed that Balraj, owner of Jalandhar-based K.P. Travel, had asked him to pay up ₹30.05 lakh to take his son to the U.S.. The children were shown to be part of a school group being sent on a trip to the U.S, which was organised by Click Education Services run by Chetan.
On further inquiry, the school principal told the CBI that Chetan had approached the school for facilitating a cultural trip and had kept passports of the teachers and students with him during the visa process.
The second case too was registered on Thursday on a complaint by the External Affairs Ministry. The Indian embassy in Nairobi (Kenya) had rescued three young girls who were allegedly taken to Mombassa on the pretext of giving employment as bar dancers, but were forced into prostitution. The CBI has named a Ludhiana-based agent Kala, alias Emmnuel Masih and another agent named Aryan from Delhi as accused. The victims were repatriated this January.
