KOCHI: The CBI Court here on Saturday awarded rigorous imprisonment (RI) to seven accused persons, including three women, in the Nedumbassery human trafficking case. The sensational case pertains to the illegal trafficking of women from different parts of Kerala to brothels in the Gulf countries during 2009-2012, after promising them jobs.
CBI Court Judge S Santhosh Kumar acquitted six others who were accused of assisting the sex racketeers in the Gulf countries and in Kerala.Those sentenced to RI include Suresh K V, 52, Valappad, Thrissur; Lissy Sojan 47, Thalapilly, Thrissur; Sethulal 51, Lokamalleswaram, Thrissur; Anil Kumar V, 45 Vattapara, Thiruvananthapuram; Bindu P V, 31 Kattappana, Idukki; Santha, 46, Punaloor, Kollam; and Maneesh AP, 36, Kodungalloor, Thrissur. Sudharman K, 61, Thiruvananthapuram; Varghese Raphel, 48 of Maradu, Ernakulam; Kabeer PK, 58, Chavakkad, Thrissur; Siraj, 48 of Chazhoor, Thrissur; S Musthafa, 70, Kilikkollur, Kollam, and Tahira of Thrissur, are those set free by the court.
T A Rafeeque, of Kodungalloor, and M Rameshan, of Chelambra, Malappuram, had turned approvers in the case. One of the accused Sheela is still at large.“It has been found the victims were treated as slaves in the UAE by the accused. It is unfortunate and shocking to see some of the accused in the case are women. On a reading of the deposition of the victims, there may not be any difference of opinion that no leniency should be shown to the accused. However, a lenient view is taken with respect to accused no 4, 5 and 6 and their sentence is reduced,” the court observed.
Suresh K V and Sethulal were sentenced to 10 years’ RI and were slapped with a fine of `2.54 lakh for various offences under IPC sections 120B, 342, 343, 365, 366, 376 and 420, along with Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act section 3(1), 4(1),5(1) and 6(1).
Lissy Sojan was also sentenced to 10 years of RI and was fined `2.04 lakh. Manesh AP was awarded 10 years’ RI and was slapped with a fine of `2.54 lakh. Anil Kumar V, Bindu P V and Santha were sentenced to seven years of RI and were fined `1.02 lakh under section 120B, 420 and 366 of IPC along with section 5(1) of Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.
The case relates to the immoral trafficking of a Kazhakootam native woman to Muscat in 2012 after promising her a housemaid’s job on a salary of `20,000-25,000 per month. She was sent to Muscat using a forged passport of a Kattapana native woman. After arriving at Muscat she was taken to the UAE illegally and forced into flesh trade by main accused Suresh K V with the assistance of Lissy Sojan and Sethulal. However, the woman managed to escape from the clutches of the accused and reached Mumbai where she was caught for possessing a fake passport. She was handed over to the Kerala Police and subsequently, a case was registered by the Nedumbassery police.
During the investigation, the involvement of an organised racket was revealed and the case was taken over by the Crime Branch. Later, the case was handed over to the CBI, which registered five other cases related to human trafficking from Nedumbassery and Thiruvananthapuram airports.
In other cases, some police officers who had served at the Immigration Department were also made accused and chargesheeted by the CBI. The case was investigated by CBI Inspector Vinod D. CBI prosecutor Arun K Antony appeared for the national agency during the trial stage.