The NIA on Saturday charge-sheeted two Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly crossing into India illegally 10 years ago and pushing people from their country into forced labour through an organised racket.
The probe of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the case has revealed that the accused — Muhammed Sahajalal Haldar and Muhammed Idris alias Erdish Khan — had crossed into India through Benapole on the India-Bangladesh border and had initially worked as waste segregators, according to a statement.
Benapole is a town in Bangladesh’s Jessore district.
Later, they first rented land at Seegehalli and then at Margondanahalli in Karnataka, and started their own waste segregation units by constructing godowns and temporary sheds, the NIA said in its statement.
They used to employ trafficked Bangladeshi nationals and force them into hard labour on meagre wages under the threat of arrest by the Indian police, it said.
As part of an elaborate human trafficking network, Bangladeshi nationals were brought to India through the India-Bangladesh border on the pretext of secure jobs with valid Indian identity documents, according to the findings of the probe.
“Further strengthening its case against the human trafficking network, the NIA on Saturday charge-sheeted two men for illegally crossing into India 10 years ago and pushing Bangladeshi nationals into forced labour,” the statement said.
The charge-sheet was filed in a special NIA court in Bengaluru against Haldar and Khan, who were arrested in February with the help of the Internal Security Division of Karnataka, after being on the run for months, it said.
The NIA had registered a case in this regard on November 7 last year after receiving credible inputs about certain Karnataka-based entities working with facilitators and traffickers in Assam and Tripura in India and Bangladesh to establish a transnational human trafficking network.
Nationwide searches by the NIA had led to the arrest of several accused in the case and the agency had earlier charge-sheeted 12 Bangladeshi nationals.
“Further investigations are continuing to track other suspected traffickers, including ‘dalals’ and touts involved in the racket,” the agency said.
