NIA May Probe Cross-Border Trafficking Racket Busted By MP’s Gwalior GRP, Two Rohingya Suspects Held

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The international human trafficking racket unearthed by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Gwalior could now come under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), with the railway police preparing to write to the central agency seeking a broader probe as the case involves illegal cross-border movement.

The two men, Mohammad Hasan and Mubeen, arrested in connection with the racket have been identified as Rohingya, GRP superintendent of police Ankit Jaiswal said.

Investigators have found that the suspects had entered Bangladesh several years ago before subsequently crossing into India. They were using refugee cards as identity documents instead of Aadhaar cards.

According to the investigation, 35-year-old Hasan, who was living in Hyderabad, has two children with a wife in Bangladesh. He later married another woman in Hyderabad and has four children with her, police said.

The racket came to light after Gwalior GRP received inputs about a foreign national travelling on the Swarnajayanti Express. Mubeen was detained and his questioning led police to Hasan in Aligarh, where four Bangladeshi girls, including two minors, were rescued.

The girls had reportedly entered India through riverine and mountainous routes and were being taken to Jammu and Kashmir for marriage. Police are now examining the entire cross-border network and will seek the assistance of the Bangladesh Embassy for the deportation of the rescued girls.

Two girls trafficked on pretext of marriage

The probe has revealed that Hasan and his associate, 25-year-old Mubeen, brought girls from poor families in Bangladesh and kept them in rented accommodation in Aligarh before arranging their marriages in Jammu and Kashmir.

Their accomplice, Hamdullah in Bangladesh, helped them cross the Bangladesh-India border through donkey routes. A man identified as Adil, who is still absconding, sold the girls in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of arranging marriages.

GRP officials said the network had already taken at least two girls from Bangladesh to Jammu and Kashmir and sold them on the pretext of marriage.