9 sentenced to life in human trafficking case

A special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases in Hyderabad has sentenced nine people, including eight Bangladeshi nationals, to life imprisonment for their involvement in a human trafficking network in 2019, an official statement from the NIA said on Friday.

The nine persons convicted in the case have been identified as Ruhul Amin Dhali (A2), Mohd Yousuf Khan alias Md Imran (A4), Bithi Begum alias Khadija Shaik (A5), Imamul Ghazi alias Mohd Rana Hussain (A6), Mohammed Al Mamun (A8), Sojib Shaik (A9), Suresh Kumar Das alias Sagor (A10), Mohd Abdulla Munshi alias Abdul Sarkar (A11), and Mohd Ayub Shaik (A12).

The accused was charged with bringing Bangladeshi women into India on the promise of employment and subsequently forcing them into prostitution.

According to the NIA release, the special court passed the order on Thursday. It also imposed a cumulative fine of ₹1.37 lakh on the convicted persons. “In case of failure to pay the fine, the convicts will have to undergo an additional three months of simple imprisonment, the NIA said.

The case originated with an operation conducted by the Telangana police in September 2019 at Jalpally village in Hyderabad. During the operation, three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel allegedly being operated in the area. Another woman was rescued from a house in Mahimood Colony, Balapur.

According to the NIA, the investigation subsequently revealed an organised trafficking network allegedly involved in bringing Bangladeshi women into India by promising them lucrative jobs and decent wages. The women were allegedly trafficked into the country and later forced into prostitution.

Following the initial case registered by the Telangana police at Pahadi Shareef police station in the old city of Hyderabad, the NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 12, 2019.

During its investigation, the NIA established the alleged involvement of several persons in the trafficking network. The agency subsequently filed a chargesheet on October 17, 2020, against 12 accused persons. Three of them, including the prime accused (A1), had gone absconding.

The accused who were arrested during the investigation were apprehended from different locations in Telangana and West Bengal during 2019 and 2020.

According to the NIA, the accused were prosecuted under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

The conviction follows a lengthy investigation into the trafficking network and the prosecution of the accused before the Hyderabad Special Court. The case involved the trafficking of foreign nationals into India and their alleged exploitation through forced prostitution.

The NIA said the court’s order resulted in life imprisonment for all nine convicted accused, along with the financial penalty imposed by the court.