NIA files charge sheet against 12 in international human trafficking racket

Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge sheet against 12 persons, including nine Bangladeshi nationals, in an international human trafficking racket. The case was first registered at the Pahadishareef police station of the Rachakonda commissionerate.

Abdul Barik Shaik of Bangladesh, who is absconding, along with Ruhul Amin Dhali of West Bengal, Asad Hasan and Shareeful Shaik of Maharashtra, and eight Bangladeshis - Mohd. Yousuf Khan, Bithi Begum, Mohd Rana Hussain, Mohammed Al Mamun, Sojib Shaik, Suresh Kumar Das, Mohd. Abdulla Munshi, and Mohd Ayub Shaik are charged under various sections of the IPC, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956, and the Foreigners Act 1946. The charge sheet was filed before the Special Court for NIA cases at Hyderabad.

The case was initially registered at Pahadishareef in Hyderabad following the arrest of 10 human traffickers from two brothels at Jalpally village and Mahimood colony in Balapur. Four young Bangladeshi girls were rescued from the brothels and several digital devices, fake Indian identity documents, and other incriminating materials seized.

The NIA investigation established that the arrested were associates of Ruhul Amin Dhali and Abdul Barik Sheikh who illegally trafficked young girls from Bangladesh to India and vice versa. The NIA had already arrested Ruhul in another case. Ruhul and other 10 accused had illegally entered India in the 1980s and established a prostitution racket along with Yusuf Khan and Bithi Begum, the husband and wife duo, in various parts of India.

The accused hatched a criminal conspiracy along with their associates in Bangladesh to look for young Bangladeshi girls between the ages 19-25 years and traffick them to India by crossing the Sonai river and via Kolkata and then take them to various destinations in India, including Mumbai and Hyderabad. They lured girls with the promise of lucrative jobs and better quality of life in India. They were also provided fake Indian identity documents and eventually forced into prostitution. The rescued girls were sent to shelter homes in Hyderabad and the accused persons sent to judicial custody.