After a year of search, Gujarat Police nab human trafficking kingpin during wedding function

According to Nirlipit Rai, SMC Superintendent of Police, the racket initially sends people to El Salvador, European countries, and Mexico and from there to the US, which was their final destination.

The police last year arrested Ketan Patel’s accomplice Bobby alias Bharat Patel and raided his premises and offices owned by him. During the search operation in December 2022, the SMC seized “around 97 passports which were categorised differently in some passports, the identity was fake on some passports, there were visa issues and some passports were not even issued by the government,” Rai said.

The SMC officials understood the modus operandi of the racket based on the forged passports seized, the interrogation of Bobby Patel and monetary transactions. The police registered a case at the Sola police station and named 18 people, including Ketan Patel, in the FIR. The sleuths found out that Bobby Patel and Ketan Patel had been manufacturing fake passports from a factory since 2005,” Rai added.

“Ketan has a criminal background as he was earlier caught by the Mumbai Police. They had also found three forged passports with Ketan’s name. He is a very active agent, the biggest in this side of the country,” Rai said.

Ketan Patel was charged under IPC Sections 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will,), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) and Passport Act section 12.