Racket smuggling children to US busted

AHMEDABAD: Versova police in Mumbai busted a racket involving the smuggling of minors across US borders, so they can be with their relatives in the US. Police were tipped off that children were having make-up put on at a salon, to make them resemble certain passport holders.
In the Versova racket, allegedly run by one Rajesh Gamlewala, a resident of Ranip in Ahmedabad, who was aided by agents in Mumbai and Gujarat, about 300 children have been sent to the US illegally.

Now, Gujarat CID (crime) and Ahmedabad crime branch, entrusted with digging deeper into the Gujarat angle, say that seven children - including two girls - from Mehsana, Diwanpur and Ahmedabad, were about to be sent to their guardians in the US by the syndicate. Police sources said CID crime and Ahmedabad crime branch team went to Mumbai and interrogated the four accused - Amir Azam, Tajuddin Khan, Rizwan Chotani and Rajesh Gamlewala.

"The children sent to the US illegally were not part of a child trafficking or prostitution racket, but the smuggling was on-demand, as the children's guardians had gone to US illegally and the children couldn't get visas, mainly because of the 'Patel' surname," a CID crime official said.

"When the racket was busted, two girls and two boys were about to be sent by making them take up Muslim identities, using Tajuddin Khan and Amir Azam. All four children were to have make up applied to make up to look like they were Tajuddin and Amir's children," said CID crime DGP Ashish Bhatia. "Tajudinn and Amir already have US visas and were to be paid to take these children to the US as their own children," Bhatia added.

Earlier, DGP Shivanand Jha had verbally directed CID crime and Ahmedabad crime branch to conduct a probe into the Gujarat angle of the alleged child trafficking racket, as claimed by Mumbai police.

"Regarding the Gujarat angle, we can say it is an illegal immigration racket. Gamlewala was part of the racket and identified aspiring emigrants from Mehsana and Ahmedabad, which have large populations of the Patel community. They would charge as much as Rs 40 lakh to transport would-be emigrants past US borders," said a senior crime branch official. The parents of the children who were to be sent to the US are already in the US.