Nagpur: The human
trafficking case, allegedly involving around 10 Sikh and Sindhi couples and their agents from north Nagpur, has taken a serious turn with the police bringing Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officials of birth and death registration department under the lens.
The cops are also not ruling out involvement of some of the verification wing personnel in the racket.
With the arrest of NMC contract worker Pankaj Sakhre from birth and death registration wing and seizure of some computers as well as hard disks from the office, the crime branch is waiting for replies from the immigration wing before zeroing down on the senior officials for their probable nexus with the racketeers.
These officials allegedly issued fake certificates on which passports and visas were prepared by the racketeers. Around 11 persons, including an advocate, have been arrested in the case so far.
A senior police official attached to the probe said the signatures of NMC officials on the fake certificates will make them criminally liable. It has come to fore that the couples accused in the case had procured certificates of children from NMC showing their births at short intervals under questionable circumstances.
"Apart from NMC, it was learnt that even some personnel from the Pachpaoli and Jaripatka police stations' passport verification wing are also being questioned for raising no doubt when the same couples used to come forward with so many children having taken birth at such short intervals," he said.
DCP (crime) Sambhaji Kadam said the immigration wing of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is expected to provide feedback on the documents of the accused along with their passports and visas. "We are now waiting for verifications from the immigration department before making crucial moves in the case," he said.
