A day after a plane detained in France over suspicion of human trafficking reached Mumbai with passengers mostly from India, the Gujarat police have formed teams to coordinate with the passengers in its bid to unearth a suspected illegal immigration network involving "agents", said a senior police official, reported PTI.
Many passengers on the plane hail from Gujarat, he said.
The Airbus A340, carrying 276 passengers with most of them from India, was detained in France for four days over a suspected case of human trafficking. The plane arrived at Mumbai airport in the wee hours of Tuesday.
"The CID crime wants to take action against agents who had promised help to the victims to enter the US and other countries (illegally). We have formed four teams which will get information from the victims regarding promises made to them by these agents," Superintendent of Police, CID (Crime), Sanjay Kharat said, as per the PTI report.
According to Kharat, most of the passengers on the flight were from Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana and Anand districts in Gujarat.
"Police will coordinate with the passengers when they reach Gujarat from Mumbai to find out the agents and agencies involved and whether documents provided to them to migrate to the US and other countries were forged," he said.
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The police will also try to find out how many people have been flown abroad this way and who all are seeking to travel this way, he added.
As per the PTI report, the CID has received “raw information” about the agents involved in the incident, said the SP, adding that more information about the incident could be known after questioning the passengers concerned.
As per the official, different agents involved in illegal immigration work in tandem.
"The agents working at the village and district levels are small players controlled by a kingpin who works at the international level," he added.
Kharat said different agents use different modus operandi based on the requirements of the person seeking to migrate like whether they require forged documents etc, and rates are fixed accordingly.