Indian Investigative Agency Busts Trafficking Gang Trying to Take 11 Punjab Boys to U.S.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against five people for allegedly trying to send 11 teenager boys from Punjab to the United States on the pretext of an educational trip.

The five accused are residents of Delhi and Punjab, , the CBI said in a statement on April 3. They have been identified as Rachna David from Jalandhar, and Sandeep Singh Luthra, Amit Jyot Singh, Rohit Gauba and Anshika Matharu from Delhi, according to the Tribune.

After the case was registered, CBI conducted searches on April 3 at five places in Delhi and in one place in Punjab, including residential as well as official premises of the five accused. This led to the recovery of incriminating documents and articles. The investigation is still on.

“It was alleged that the accused persons submitted false and fabricated documents to the U.S. embassy for obtaining non-immigrant visa for the 11 boys and one of the accused persons,” the CBI said.

All the teenage boys were shown as students of a school in Punjab. One of the accused, who was to escort the group to the United States, was shown as the principal of the same school. However, none of them belonged to this school, the statement added.

The families of each boy is said to have paid lakhs of rupees to the accused for sending them to the United States.

The boys were brought from Punjab to New Delhi by the gang and were tutored to present themselves as school students during their interview at the U.S. embassy, the CBI said. One of the accused, David, allegedly impersonated as the principal of the school and accompanied the boys to the U.S. embassy.

The CBI is also trying to assess whether this gang is associated with another group that was booked in December last year for sending 25 teenage students to France, the India Today reported. A complaint was registered against three travel agents after 22 of the 25 Indian minors allegedly taken illegally to France by them in 2016 were found missing. The teenagers, hailing from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, were allegedly taken on the pretext of giving them rugby training. The 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 last year.