Mohali police on Wednesday busted a human trafficking racket and seized Rs 2.13 crore and 64 tolas of gold worth around Rs 33 lakh. Police arrested five people including two women who were involved in the racket. Police also recovered two cars used by the accused in the crime. The police said that the accused would lure youngsters to go to the US but instead took them to Indonesia and Singapore where they would sexually exploit them and extort money from their families. The arrested were Baldish Kaur, Gurjeet Singh, Sahil, Som Raj and Veena. Police also identified their accomplices Sunny Kumar and Jasbir Singh, based in Indonesia and Singapore. Mohali SSP Dr Sandeep Garg said that the accused used to target people from Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh (HP). The SSP said that the accused would lure the people to go to the US via Mexico but they would kidnap and confine the victims in Indonesia and Singapore. “After kidnapping their victims they would ask them to call their families and demand money. They would ask for Rs 40 lakh and tell them that their family member had reached Mexico. The local conduits, Baldish Kaur, Veena, Sahil, Som Raj and Gurjeet Singh alias Manga and Sonia, Abhishek, Malkit Singh, Tony, Bhupinder Singh, Sandeep and Suman would extort the money from the families,” the SSP said.
