Telangana Police Bust Human Trafficking Racket Taking Women to UAE

A Dubai-based human trafficking racket, that was allegedly luring victims on the grounds of getting them employed in the United Arab Emirates and sending them to prostitution agents instead, was busted by the Malkajgiri Police Special Operations Team in Telangana.

Five people were arrested after the racket was busted by the police on Jan. 19, the Indian Express reported. The police are searching for over 30 other agents from Andhra Pradesh.

The five persons arrested were identified as U Trimurthulu alias Murthy, 32, M Tathaji alias Nani, 26, 30-year-old P Dasu, 40-year-old G Rama Rao and S Murali, aged 37. The men hail from East Godavari and West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh.

“They were running the racket for more than 10 years. They have good contacts with manpower agents in Dubai as well as in Muscat, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain,” Ch R Umamaheshwara Sharma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Malkajgiri, said, Telangana Today reported.

The gang focused on targeting rural women and promising them lucrative employment as cooks, caretakers, and housemaids in the UAE. The monthly salary they were offered was Rs 30,000.

Sharma added that the women were exploited sexually by the suspects. A travel agency called Man Power Agencies (MPA) sent them to Dubai.

“They came to know that they were cheated only after being handed over to local manpower consultancies and their passports forcibly seized,” he said.

A complaint was lodged by a woman with the Ghatkesar police last year. She said that travel agents were luring innocent, illiterate women on the pretext of getting them high paying jobs in Dubai.

U Trimurthulu or Murthy, a Dubai resident contacted the Ghatkesar resident, telling her that his friend there was looking to hire laborers. He promised her and her husband good salaries. The couple paid Murthy Rs 2.8 lakh for visa and air tickets, and he confiscated the couple’s passport and kept it with him for over one and a half years.

According to the police, he then introduced the couple to P Srinu Babu, who took Rs 70,000 from them. Following this, the woman was sent to Dubai on Feb.12, 2017 on a tourist visa. When the woman reached Dubai, Babu sold her as a sex slave to MPA. The racketeers threatened her that if she did not cooperate, they would report her to police for illegal stay. Her husband was sent to Dubai after 10 days.

“Indian agents in Dubai are employing sub-agents in villages of Andhra Pradesh. The five arrested agents have trafficked more than 100 people for flesh trade. Over 50 agents have been identified residing in Dubai. There are 33 agents in East and West Godavari districts, who would be apprehended soon” Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, the report added.

The police said that the couple had to cough up more money and were kept in confinement for around three months before the woman was sent back. After she returned to India, she lodged a complaint with the police. The agents then sent her husband back to India as they came to know that she had complained against them.