Delhi/Hyderabad: The law has tightened its grip on the human trafficking gang that brings Bangladeshi women to India with the promise of jobs and good earnings and then forcibly pushes them into prostitution. The special court for NIA cases in Hyderabad has sentenced nine accused, including eight Bangladeshi nationals, to life imprisonment in the 2019 human trafficking case.
The court has also imposed a total fine of Rs 1.37 lakh on the culprits. In case of non-payment of fine, he will have to undergo additional simple imprisonment of three months. This decision was given by the special court on 17 September 2026. The case is related to the smuggling network which used to bring Bangladeshi women to India by luring them with lucrative jobs and better salaries. After reaching India, the women were allegedly forced into prostitution.
Smuggling game exposed in raid
In September 2019, Telangana Police received information about human trafficking and prostitution in Pahadi Sharif police station area of Hyderabad. During the operation, three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel operating in Jalapalli village, while another woman was rescued from a house in Mahmood Colony, Balapur. Considering the seriousness of the case, the National Investigation Agency took over the investigation and re-registered the case as RC-03/2019/NIA/HYD on 12 October 2019.
Gang links revealed in investigation
After the alleged role of the accused came to light in the NIA investigation, the agency filed a charge sheet against 12 accused on 17 October 2020. These included absconding accused A1, A3 and A7. During the investigation, various accused were arrested from different places including Telangana and West Bengal in the year 2019 and 2020.
The nine accused who were convicted and sentenced by the court are Ruhul Amin Dhali (A2), Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Mohammad Imran (A4), Beethi Begum alias Khadija Shaikh (A5), Imamul Ghazi alias Mohammad Rana Hussain (A6), Mohammad Al Mamun (A8), Sojib Sheikh (A9), Suresh Kumar Das alias Sagar (A10), Mohammad Abdullah Munshi alias Abdul Sarkar (A11) and Mohammad Ayub Shaikh (A12) is involved. These accused were prosecuted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Foreigners Act, 1946 and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
The journey started with greed, ended with compulsion
According to the investigating agency, women in this network were brought to India with the promise of better employment and higher salaries. After this, their circumstances were taken advantage of and they were forced into prostitution. The recovery of the victim women found in the initial action of the police opened the way for the investigation of the entire network. After the court's decision, the nine accused convicted in this case of human trafficking will now have to face life imprisonment. A separate case of action is going on in relation to the absconding accused.