India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet in a special court in Bengaluru against six accused persons, all Indians, in connection with a high-profile human trafficking case linked to Sri Lanka.

Media reports say Dhinakaran Ayya, Kasi Viswanathan, Rasool, Saddam Hussain, Abdul Muheetu, and Socrates were charged under sections 343, 344, 370(3), and 120B of the IPC. The accused persons, all residents of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, are allegedly involved in the organized international trafficking racket across the India-Sri Lanka maritime boundary. 

They are accused of luring Sri Lankan nationals by promising them to send to Canada. 

The case was originally registered at Mangaluru South Police Station against 25 Sri Lankans. The Indian agency received the information that the Sri Lankans were staying in a lodge without valid documents. In the following raids, 13 more Sri Lankans were apprehended.

Investigations established that the 38 Sri Lankans were trafficked to India in four batches from February to April 2021, according to a report in The Hindu. 

The accused trafficked and confined the victims at various places in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as part of the larger conspiracy with Sri Lankan suspects, without any contact with victims’ family members so as to misguide the latter that they were on a ship going to Canada, the NIA said. 

All the trafficked 38 Sri Lankans were promised that they would be sent to Canada and were charged between 3.5 and 10 lakh Sri Lankan rupees, the NIA claimed. 

Another report claimed that their plan failed when India imposed travel restrictions in the wake of the pandemic, forcing them to house their victims in different places in India. 

(SAM)