Human trafficking racket busted in Bhubaneswar, six held

BHUBANESWAR: Khandagiri police here on Tuesday busted an alleged interstate human trafficking racket and prevented at least 300 men from getting trafficked to Kuwait on the pretext of getting employment in an oil company. Police arrested six traffickers, including four from Maharashtra.
Commissioner of police Y B Khurania said the accused were conducting a fake recruitment drive in a hotel in Kolathia area when the Khandagiri police swooped down on them on Tuesday evening. Police said the four persons from Thane area of Maharashtra--Asgar Ali Sayeed, 40, Sajid Ali Maniyar, 48, Sheikh Nizamuddin Gayauddin, 42 and Mustak Mohammad, 38--were mastermind of the racket. They roped in Pramod Kumar Maharana, 35 and Chittaranjan Maharana, 30, both residents of Khurda district, as their Odisha representatives for the job placement drive.

Police said the four persons from Thane impersonated themselves as Indian representatives of a major oil company in Kuwait. They also claimed to own a travel agency in Mumbai. Pramod and Chittaranjan too introduced themselves as tour operators. “Our inquiry revealed that the six persons were cheats. They forged documents and claimed themselves as running legitimate travel agencies. They also showed some government documents, which were found to be fake. They do not own any authorised or licenced recruitment agency to provide jobs to people outside the country,” Khurania said.

Police said intention of the accused persons was to exploit Odia migrant workers. During investigation, police found that the interviewers had applied for jobs of plumber, carpenter, gardener and driver. “We had received information about their recruitment drive. We planted two of our men among the interviewers to know the modus operandi. After close observation, we learnt that the recruiters were fraudsters,” another police officer said.

"Our timely intervention foiled the human trafficking bid. We seized at least 75 passports from the accused. The passports belonged to the job seekers. Luckily, the applicants had not paid any money to the accused. Each of the selected candidates was asked to arrange nearly Rs 50,000 for the job,” the officer said.

Applicants, who came to know about the placement drive from advertisement in some vernacular dailies last month, heaved a sigh of relief. “I had arranged nearly Rs one lakh in much difficulty. I was assured to get monthly salary of nearly Rs 80,000 in Indian currency for job of driver. Luckily, I was saved,” said 30-year-old Dillip Behera from Kendrapada.

In a bid to prevent exploitation of Odia migrant workers in Middle East and South East Asian countries, the state government had recently asked the labour and employees state insurance (ESI) department to create a database of recruitment agencies that provide jobs to youths outside the country. The additional director general of police of state Crime Branch Santosh Upadhyay too recently circulated an advisory to all SPs to prevent human trafficking.