National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad filed a supplementary chargesheet in a human trafficking case involving a Hyderabadi man and his Bagaladeshi wife. The duo were alleged to have trafficked several young girls from Bangladesh for sex work.
Mohammed Abdul Salam alias Kounla Justin, a resident of Hydeabad, and his wife Shiuli Khatun alias Sheela Justin, a resident of Bangaldesh, have been accused of sex trafficking young Bangladeshi girls t in Hyderabad and nearby places. The supplementary charge sheet was filed in a special court at Nampally of Hyderabad.
According to a press release by NIA officials, Salam, 47, and his 30-year-old wife have been charged under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave), 370A(2) (exploitation of a trafficked person) and 471 (fraudulent usage of documents or forging) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, and Sections 14, 14A and 14C of The Foreigners Act, 1946.
Initially the case was registered by the city police on April 21, 2019 following the rescue of six Bangladeshi girls from brothel houses run by the accused Yousuf Khan, Bithi Begum and Sojib Shaik.
The case was re-registered with the NIA, Hyderabad branch office, on September 17, 2019. The NIA arrested accused Ruhul Amin Dhali and filed the first chargesheet against Mohd Yousuf Khan, Bithi Begum, Sojib Shaik and Dhali on March 10 this year.
Officials said that the investigation established that Mohd Abdul Salam and Shiuli Khatun along with accused Mohd Yousuf Khan, Bithi Begum, Sojib Shaik, Ruhul Amin Dhali and others were allegedly trafficking poor and young Bangladeshi girls into India through a well-organised network of agents in Bangladesh and India, by giving them false inducements of lucrative jobs, and subsequently forcing them into sex work.
Three more girls were rescued by the NIA on May 23 this year from the rented house of Mohammed Abdul Salam and Shiuli Khatun in Hayathnagar, Hyderabad.
NIA has seized several evidences during the recent riad, officials said "many incriminating articles and documents were seized from the house including multiple identity documents of the trafficked girls, contraceptive pills, mobile phones and large number of diaries and registers containing names and mobile numbers of various brothel agents to whom the trafficked girls were sent for sexual exploitation on commission basis."