Oman returnees: 25 days on, probe hits a wall

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, June 17

Almost four weeks after the first flight carrying Punjabi women from Oman landed in India opening a pandora’s box of sordid illegal trafficking tales the police investigation into the trafficking racket seems to have hit a wall.

After the initial burst of immediate arrests and action by the Punjab Police 18 FIRs and nine arrests the trail seems to have stopped cold. The police said a lot of incorrect information was proving to be a challenge. Hence, the men who actually employed the arrested agents to send these women abroad are yet to be caught.

Of the various Hyderabad, Kerala, Delhi and Arab men, whom these women have blamed of misconduct, not a single one has been arrested.

Ludhiana Range IGP Kaustubh Sharma said the process to verify the suspects was on.

The names which have been listed in FIRs include an Arab agent, Saiyyad, who as per the FIR asked a Hoshiarpur woman to pay Rs 2,75,000 if she wanted to go back to India from Oman; a woman named called “Nija Madam” who as per the victim kept her labour money and beat her if she asked for it. Two Hyderabad agents putting up at Oman have been named in an FIR at Tarn Taran.

IGP Sharma said, “We have made nine arrests so far and some of the agents we were chasing have escaped to other states.”