Gujarat Police are questioning passengers of the alleged ‘Dunki’ flight returned from France
A ‘dunki’ flight bound for Nicaragua, an Airbus A340, carrying 276 passengers, mainly Indians, was grounded in France for four days due to suspected human trafficking.
Ahmedabad: Gujarat police on Wednesday began questioning 21 residents of the state who arrived at their hometown today, days after their plane was grounded in France over suspected human trafficking.
The plane bound for Nicaragua, an Airbus A340, with 276 passengers on board, mainly Indians, was grounded in France for four days due to suspected human trafficking. It landed in Mumbai in the wee hours of Tuesday.
‘Illegal immigration network’
A senior official of the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) said at least 21 passengers are residents of Gujarat and are being questioned as police investigate a suspected illegal immigration network.
“We have learned that 21 passengers came from Gujarat and some of them have reached their respective places in the state. Our teams are currently in the field and we have already started their interrogation,” said Superintendent of Police, CID (Crime), Sanjay Kharat, according to news agency PTI.
Police will try to determine how the passengers were approached for possible illegal immigration to America, how they were supposed to get to the U.S. once they reached Nicaragua and which officers were involved, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kharat had said that the CID had formed four teams to investigate the issue.
“The CID (crime) wants to take action against officers who had promised assistance to the victims to enter the US and other countries (illegally). We have formed four teams that will get information from the victims about the promises made to them by these officers,” Kharat told reporters on Tuesday.
Most of the Gujarati passengers from Mehsana
Meanwhile, Mehsana police swung into action after some media reports suggested that most of the passengers were from the district.
Mehsana SP Achal Tyagi said a local police team also visited a site to verify claims that an officer named Kiran Patel was part of the immigration network.
“We do not yet have any specific information about Mehsana residents who were on that flight. Since some reports suggested that people from Mehsana were on their flight, we requested a list of passengers from the immigration department,” Tyagi said.
He added that Kiran Patel was not found at his residence in Mehsana as he had shifted to another location several years ago.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kharat had said that the state CID had so far received “raw information” about the officers involved in the incident and would know more only after interrogating the passengers involved.
Kharat had said that several officers involved in illegal immigration are working together.
“The officers working at the village and district levels are small players controlled by a kingpin who works at the international level,” he had said.
The Gujarat Police will investigate and get a clear picture of how they are operating, he said.
Flight grounded over human trafficking concerns
The chartered flight, operated by Romanian charter airline Legend Airlines and bound for Nicaragua, landed in Vatry near Paris on December 21 for a technical stopover en route from Dubai, when French police intervened.
French authorities have launched a judicial investigation into the circumstances and purpose of the trip, with a unit specializing in organized crime investigating suspected human trafficking.
Nicaragua has become a popular destination for asylum seekers in the US. As many as 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in the financial year 2023, marking a 51.61 percent increase over the previous year, according to data made available by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
At least 41,770 of these Indians attempted to enter the US through the Mexican land border, CBP data shows. Flights to Nicaragua or third countries where obtaining travel documents is easy are known as ‘dunki’ flights.
(With PTI inputs)