Mumbai Child Trafficking Racket: 17 Minors Sent Abroad on Four Fake Indian Passports

Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Location: Mumbai, India

The Sahar police investigating the recently busted child trafficking racket, in which at least 17 minors were sent to USA and Mexico from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, found that they were sent on four forged Indian passports, which were re-used several times.

The accused, Hemang Modi, 52, and his wife, Harsha, 41, who live in Borivli (East), came under the scanner after immigration officials found Harsha’s passport had been used by four different women to go abroad.Harsha also used the same passport to make foreign trips, police said.

The Sahar police on Tuesday arrested one more accused. Five other people have been booked in the case.

Each of the 17 minors were taken on four Indian passports. The police said that either Modi or the six other accused brought back the passports to India, which were forged by agents and re-used again.

The police learnt that Harsha and the women took a boy and a girl abroad with them on every trip taken between 2015 and 2016. The women and the trafficked children have not returned to Mumbai till date, said police.

The police also found that the children were not taken to USA or Mexico directly. They were first taken from Mumbai to United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland, and then to USA and Mexico. The police have ascertained that Modi was a carrier, and received Rs 3 lakh for every child he sent abroad.

The police are probing the possibility of Modi having sent the minors to their parents or family members in USA and Mexico.

Police suspect that the minors’ families settled abroad, either legally or illegally, and then found it difficult to get their children across through the legal channels.They are also investigating other angles.

Read the Hindustan Times (Source) article here.