Four persons operating an interstate human trafficking racket in Hyderabad were arrested by the Rachakonda police on Tuesday. The accused collected money from women and sent them to Gulf countries on visitor visas on the pretext of providing them jobs.
Police seized a total of 40 passports from the four accused, who have been identified as Shaik Mohammad Imtiyaz, Nune Subbamma, Gundugala Subba Rayudu and Mohamed Haroon. Police are on the lookout for three others, Sayeed, Mohammad Naseer and Sumaiya Fathima, who are now on the run.
The accused were operating a travel agency under the name of Al Hayath Tours and Travels at Malakpet providing emigration and manpower recruitment services.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat told the media that Subbamma and Subba Rayudu had earlier worked in Gulf countries, where they developed contacts with manpower recruitment agencies based in Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. The agents collected information on those in the Gulf who required domestic worker services and lured women from Telangana with job offers. The group targeted women who were in financial distress and promised them salaries to the tune of Rs 30,000 per month and collected funds of Rs 4 lakh from each person. The agency even helped these women secure passports. However, the women were sent abroad on visitor visas and not employment visas, the police said in the press conference.
When they finally reached their destination country, the women found themselves severely underpaid and often sexually exploited.
The racket was busted based on a complaint by Khadar Bi who was to board a Muscat bound flight from Hyderabad on February 7. Khadar changed her mind at the last minute and returned home without boarding the flight. The woman grew suspicious of the job offer when her point of contact with the agency, Imtiyaz, asked her to meet him alone at a lodge in Shamshabad before heading to the airport. Khadar was given her travel documents only hours before the flight.
After giving the documents, Imtiyaz informed Khadar that Rs 30,000 will be credited to her family’s bank account once she sends him a photograph of her boarding the flight. The woman was earlier warned by a neighbour, Mastanamma from Nellore of Andhra Pradesh, of being duped by the agency. Mastanamma had availed the services of the agency and was sent to Muscat to work as a domestic worker but on a visitor visa. Once Khadar realised she too was being sent abroad on a visitor visa, she decided to return home and file a police complaint.