15 trafficked from Gujarat: Police raid flat of accused on the run in Ahmedabad

Sushil and Santosh, are among the accused persons, currently on the run, who had contacted the families in Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, promising to send them illegally to US and Canada, and later kidnapped them to extort money.

“The two accused were living in Ahmedabad for the past 5-6 years in a rented flat at Godrej Garden society. A team raided the residence on Tuesday night in which documents and a laptop of the accused containing evidence were seized. Further investigation is on in the case,” said Rajbha Parmar, police inspector, Mansa Police Station.

Initially, police had filed two FIRs in Gandhinagar and Mehsana against the accused gang in the matter.

On Wednesday, a third FIR was filed at the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) police station against the accused gang at the behest of the complainant named Meet Patel (22), a resident of Nava Naroda in Ahmedabad, who was extorted to the tune of Rs 46 lakh by the gang after he was kept in illegal detention for two months.

On Sunday morning, 15 persons including three children returned to Gandhinagar after they were rescued from various hotels in Delhi and Kolkata by Gujarat Police and Delhi Police’s Special Cell in an operation.

The 15 persons had left from Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in November last year as per an arrangement by the trafficker’s gang and had reached Kolkata via Mumbai.

However in Kolkata, they were allegedly confined illegally and tortured by the accused group over a period of two months for extortion. A total amount of over Rs 3 crore was extorted from the families of the kidnapped victims, said the police.

Police have arrested a local agent Rajesh Patel from Ahmedabad who had also contacted the victims. Three other accused Sushil Roy, Santosh Roy and Kamal Singhania are currently on the run.

“A court on Tuesday had granted police remand of Rajesh Patel till February 24,” added Parmar.