The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet before a special court in Bengaluru against six accused for their involvement in the organised international trafficking racket across the India-Sri Lanka maritime boundary. It may be recalled that in June, 38 Sri Lankan nationals were arrested by local police in Mangaluru for illegally entering and staying in India. Subsequently it was told by probe agencies that they had been duped on the pretext of emigration to Canada and were kept confined in different places in India. 

The accused are Dhinakaran alias Ayya, Kasi Viswanathan, Rasool, Satham Ushen alias Saddam Hussain, Abdul Muheetu and Socrates, all residents of Tamil Nadu. They have been charged under sections 343, 344 (wrongful confinement), 370(3) (trafficking of more than one person) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for their involvement  in the organised international trafficking, the NIA said. The Mangaluru police had initially booked a case on June 10 under various sections of the IPC, section 14 of Foreigners’ Act, 1946 and under section 12(1A) of Passports Act, 1967 at Mangaluru South Police Station.

The NIA on Tuesday maintained that investigations have revealed that these 38 Sri Lankans were trafficked to India in four batches during the period from February and April. The chargesheeted accused persons, as part of the larger conspiracy with Sri Lankan suspects, had trafficked and confined the said Sri Lankans at various places in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka without any contact with their family members so as to misguide the latter that their family members were on a ship going to Canada. All the trafficked 38 Sri Lankans were promised that they would be sent to Canada and were charged from 3.5 lakh to 10 lakh of Sri Lankan Rupees totalling to about 1.83 crore Sri Lankan rupees by absconding accused Easan, a Srilankan national and his other associates in Sri Lanka and India.