Mangaluru, July 14 (IANS) Karnataka’s Mangaluru City Police have arrested two alleged human trafficking agents and secured the arrest of a key kingpin in Kolkata in connection with a racket that allegedly smuggled illegal Bangladeshi nationals into India and facilitated their employment in coastal Karnataka, the official statement said on Tuesday. 

The breakthrough comes days after the police detained several illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from construction sites in Kuntikana and Kodial during a verification drive.

Police have registered a criminal case against three accused — Moidin Islam, Rasul Islam and Dilwar Hussain — all natives of West Bengal. According to investigators, the trio allegedly operated an interstate human trafficking network that illegally brought Bangladeshi nationals across the international border and placed them in the workforce by passing them off as migrant labourers from northern Indian states.

Moidin Islam and Dilwar Hussain were arrested during targeted operations conducted by the Mangaluru City Police. Based on information gathered during their interrogation, the police coordinated with Kolkata Police to trace the third accused, Rasul Islam.

Acting on the leads, Kolkata Police apprehended Rasul Islam in Kolkata in a joint operation. A special team from the Mangaluru City Police has left for Kolkata to secure his custody on a transit warrant and bring him to Mangaluru for further investigation.

Senior police officials said the accused allegedly recruited labourers for construction and industrial sectors in coastal Karnataka and used the movement of migrant workers to conceal the presence of undocumented Bangladeshi nationals.

Police believe the investigation could reveal details about the network’s operating methods, including the use of forged identity documents, cross-border infiltration routes, and the possible involvement of local facilitators who helped the illegal immigrants obtain employment and evade detection.

The investigation is continuing, and officials said more arrests are likely as the trafficking network is further uncovered.

It can be recalled that the Mangaluru city police on Monday, after intensifying their ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants, detained 11 more Bangladeshi nationals who were found working at two separate construction sites in the city. This development comes closely on the heels of the July 9 operation by the Surathkal police, who had intercepted eight illegal immigrants at a site in Mukka.

Acting on precise intelligence inputs, a team from the Urwa police station raided a construction site at Kuntikana on Monday morning. Upon questioning three labourers and scrutinising their records, officers confirmed that they were residing in the country illegally. Simultaneously, another police team inspected a construction site in Kodial, where 11 individuals were interrogated. Among them, eight were established to be undocumented Bangladeshi nationals.

City police commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy stated that a comprehensive report is being forwarded to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to secure formal detention and deportation orders. The commissioner added that criminal cases will be registered against a West Bengal-based middleman who allegedly trafficked these individuals into Mangaluru to embed them alongside domestic migrant workforces.

–IANS

mka/dpb