170 'blacklisted' recruitment agents from Punjab: MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney

Karam Prakash

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New Delhi, June 19

The probe into Oman illegal trafficking cases has now found that the links of the racket extend beyond Punjab. The Punjab Police said some recruitment agents in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar were involved in the trafficking racket.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kaustabh Sharma, who is the nodal officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the alleged human trafficking, said they had registered 19 FIRs, and arrested 11 agents so far. As many as 39 persons a majority of them agents have been named in the FIRs.

He said, “Some names of recruitment agents in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar have cropped up during our investigation. Our teams had reached Delhi, but the agent could not be traced there. We have already served him a notice. Our teams are probing the role of agents in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar too.”

He said Indian-origin women, living in Gulf countries, were also involved in the racket. Sharma claimed that they had already identified a few women in Oman. “These women of Indian origin in Dubai or Muscat first try to get in touch with locals in Punjab who through word of mouth find poor middle-aged women. After this, women in Oman arrange visa and tickets,” said the IGP.

Meanwhile, Punjab Rajya Sabha MP from Aam Aadmi Party Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Monday shared a list of banned recruitment agents in Punjab. He has already requested the Punjab Police to take action against them.

Sahney revealed that the Ministry of External Affairs had issued a list of recruitment agents who had been banned. A major chunk of the agents (170) are from Punjab.

“When we got to know that a few of the blacklisted agents were still active, we conducted a sting operation in which these agents readily accepted to assist by taking their respective fees.

“This was a shocking revelation for me as banned recruitment agents are still functioning in Punjab,” Sahney said.

AAP’s Sahney shares list

Rajya Sabha MP from AAP, Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Monday shared a list of banned recruitment agents in Punjab and has requested the Punjab Police to take action against them