Lankans nabbed in Kerala:
Kerala police Saturday stumbled on a human trafficking racket following the detention of 38 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from a lodge in Kollam district. The group, which included five women and as many children, were picked up late Friday night following intelligence inputs from Tamil Nadu police. All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is due to visit the district this week in connection with the Indian Youth Congress organisational polls.
While the women and children were allowed to remain in the lodge, the men were taken to the Kollam East Police station. Initially, they claimed that they were Indian citizens.
However, on further questioning, one of them, who knew English, disclosed that he hailed from Mullaitivu.
They had migrated to Tamil Nadu from
“They revealed that two agents by name Siva and Dennis had promised to take them to
According to sources, interrogation of the agent revealed that the refugees were due to be ferried in ships bound for
Sources in Tamil Nadu’s Q branch said it was not unusual for refugees to leave for jobs and not return. Instead they crossed the state borders to link up with agents in an attempt to reach US,
Leaving nothing to chance, sleuths from the Intelligence Bureau also quizzed the refugees. The SP added that the police had not come across anything so far to link them with the outlawed LTTE. “We are still interrogating them,’’ she said.
Police are now examining if some groups had already been dispatched to the Commonwealth country by the agent in a similar manner. Though Attalluri said it was too early to say anything on this, sources pointed out that this was the third such group. About 50 people in two groups had already been sent to
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