| A multi-million rupee human smuggling racket was busted in the City this week following the arrest of an Indian national and two others at a safe house in central Kotahena, police said. According to the OIC of the Kotahena police Chief Inspector (CI) Athula De Silva, the Indian national was believed to be the king pin in the scam and was helped in his operations by a local couple. He said the suspects had lured Tamil youth from the North and East to pay one million rupees each for a visa and travel facilities to European capitals via India. The suspects are alleged to have cleverly forged Indian and other foreign visas at the safe house which police described as a mini-kachcheri. Some 48 Sri Lankan passports along with hi-tech equipment and material were also seized by police from the safe house. At least five Kenyan visas had already been endorsed on an equal number of passports along with landing visas for India, CI De Silva added. He said investigators were currently in the process of tracking down the owners of the passports as the probe widened to find out if there was any connivance with errant officials at the Indian High Commission Office in Colombo. The police have already sounded the Indian High Commission in this connection to ascertain if the visas are genuine or fake. “We are not ruling out any possibility and every angle will be thoroughly investigated”, CI De Silva said. According to police, the racket had been in existence for a considerable period of time and dozens of persons, mainly those from the North and East had already left the country. Indian High Commission spokesperson Dinka Asthana said he was not aware of such a development.
Meanwhile the Navy has stepped up patrols across the maritime borders in several parts of the country in a bid to discourage persons leaving the country through illegal channels. Naval spokesperson Captain Athula Senarath said already some 140 persons had been nabbed while trying to leave the country illegally and four boats taken into custody. These persons, who were mainly from the East were heading for Christmas Island on the Australian coast after paying millions of rupees to local agents, he said. | 
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