CBI Books 3 Agents After 22 Indian Teens Go Missing in France

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against three travel agents after 22 of the 25 Indian minors allegedly taken illegally to France by them last year were found missing. The teenagers, hailing from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, were allegedly taken on the pretext of giving then rugby training.

CBI lodged a case of human trafficking against Faridabad-based travel agents Lalit David Dean and Delhi-based Sanjeev Raj and Varun Choudhary on Dec. 28. The agency also carried out searches at the four premises associated with the agents and documents have been seized.

It will soon contact the parents of the minors to collect information if any missing person complaint was registered.

According to the CBI, these agents charged Rs 25-30 lakh from the parents of each of the minors for sending them abroad. In February 2016, a group of 25 students was taken from Delhi to Paris to participate in international rugby training on the basis of alleged invitation received from the French Federation.

“A group of 25 students shown as students of two Kapurthala (Punjab)-based schools led by private persons (travel agents) embarked at Delhi airport for Paris to participate in a rugby training camp on the basis of alleged invitation received from the French Federation, Paris,” CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said, PTI reported.

The boys visited Paris and also attended the training camp for around a week. They were then allegedly dumped in a Gurudwara and their return ticket was cancelled. Dayal added that before the travel agents could cancel the return tickets, two of them anticipated something wrong and managed to return to India.

The CBI officials said that in their visa application, the agents had shown that the 25 students in the age group of 13-18 years were going to attend a rugby training camp in Paris. The FIR says that their visas, which were obtained from the French Embassy at Delhi, were on the basis of forged and fabricated documents.

CBI officials said that one of the 23 stranded boys from the group was arrested by the French police and he told them what had happened. The French police then referred the matter to Interpol, which informed CBI.