The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday submitted its chargesheet to a special Bengaluru court in connection with a human trafficking case connected to Bangladesh against 13 accused. The NIA said these 13 persons had illegally crossed over to India and were luring women from Bangladesh with the promise of jobs. The women were then confined in rented accommodations and subjected to sexual exploitation. The accused persons had also forged identity cards and used these forged documents as genuine to obtain Indian identity cards such as Aadhar Card, PAN Card for themselves and their victims, the chargesheet stated.
The incident had come to light after Bengaluru police in May were alerted about a viral video of a woman being raped and physically assaulted. Within 24 hours, police were able to arrest five accused seen in the video assaulting the women in the video. It was also then established that the survivor and the accused were both Bangladeshi nationals and were part of a human trafficking network. Police had said the violence was a result of a financial dispute between the survivor and other members of the network. Subsequently many more were arrested in connection with the same case and eight persons including a child from Bangladesh were rescued. The city police had also filed a chargesheet in connection with the rape case within five weeks time.
The NIA had taken over the case later in July along with similar cases of human trafficking reported in the state and neighbouring states involving Sri Lankan nationals.
According to the central probe agency, the accused have been identified as Rafik Ashraf Mandal aka Boss Rafi, Sobuj Shaik, Md. Rafikdul Islam Ridoy aka Ridoy Babo aka Ridoy Babu, Rakibul Islam aka Sagar, Md Babu Molla aka Mohammad Babu Mohammad Anwar Shaikh, Md Alami Hossen aka Rafsan Mondal aka aka Rafsan, Md Dalim aka Dalim Ahmed Jibon, Hossain MD Azim aka Azim Choryor, Mohammed Jamal aka Md Jamal aka Jamal, Enamul Haque Shuzan aka Raihan Shaik aka Raihan Ghazi, Md. Ruhul Amin aka Rasal Khan, Riday Islam aka Rocky Khan and Mohammed Milon Biswas. All the accused are Bangladeshi nationals and have been charged under sections 120B (party to criminal conspiracy) read with 370 (punishment for trafficking minors), 120B r/w 370A (2) (sexual exploitation of trafficked persons), 343 (wrongful confinement), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using forged documents) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.