The CBI has registered two separate cases of illegal trafficking of women and children to the United States of America and Kenya.

Both the cases were registered on Thursday and the first relates to a complaint from the US embassy which reported that an attempt was made by a woman Gagan Gupta, in August last year, to smuggle four minor children to that country allegedly using assumed identities of four students of St Joseph’s Convent in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district in Punjab. Five persons have been named as accused in the case. The second case registered following a reference from the Ministry of External Affairs which stated an unregistered recruitment agency was involved in trafficking girls and women to Kenya on the pretext of providing them employment. 

The embassy said that the staff of United Airlines-83 flight stopped them from boarding the flight as the faces of four children did match with their photographs in the passport, according to the us Embassy complaint to the CBI, which is now part of the FIR.

However, their passports were not seized and they were allowed to leave the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The airline staff did not contact the local police but it provided photos of the minor subjects, of the passports and the airline tickets to the embassy officials.

During inquiry by the embassy, it surfaced visas issued to the kids were part of a school group from St Joseph Convent for which a trip to the United States was organised by Click Education Services Pvt Limited.

The school was allegedly sending its students for a cultural trip to the US for which the passports of student and staff were collected by an agent promising them to help in the visa process. The agent allegedly tried to send four of its clients on the assumed identity by providing them passports of the students to whom the visas were issued for the cultural trip.

The embassy conducted its own enquiry and managed to get vital information before it sent a detailed complaint on February 7 this year to the CBI.

The five named in the case include Balraj Singh of Kings Punjab Travels, a travel agency besides other agents which include Gagan Gupta, Chetan Sabharwal, Lovepreet Singh and Tilak Raj.

The second case has been registered on a complaint from the External Affairs Ministry that Indian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya has rescued three young girls who were allegedly trafficked to Mombassa on the pretext of giving employment as dancers but were coerced into prostitution, The girls were taken to Nairobi by Shama Javaid Deen, a Kenyan national and an agent Aryan who allegedly ran an “organised crime syndicate” which involved her family members too.

“It appears that the above mentioned persons are running a human trafficking network by pushing young Indian girls into prostitution abroad with a false promise of good job and salary”, Col Rahul Dutt, Director (Overseas Employment) said in complaint in March, 2018. 

“They were forced to consume alcohol and smoke against their will and were also being coerced to enter into prostitution.

They were being physically and mentally tortured and threatened not to inform anybody otherwise they would be implicated in false cases,” it said.

After conducting a Preliminary Enquiry, the agency registered a case of criminal conspiracy and sexual exploitation under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act against a Ludhiana based agent Kala alias Emmnuel Masih and a Delhi based agent Aryan.