BENGALURU: A 50-year-old Bangladeshi man, who is suspected of regularly trafficking poor young women from his country to Malaysia via India, was caught by immigration officials at Kempegowda International Airport. The arrest was made as he was trying to traffic a Bangladeshi woman on Friday. The airport police booked Rakib HM under the Passport Act, Foreigners Act and Human Trafficking Act, while the rescued woman was sent to a women’s home in Devanahalli.
According to the airport police, Rakib was caught at 2.45am during a check. “He tried to pass off the 26-year-old woman as his wife, by using some other woman’s passport and documents,” a police officer said.
Immigration officials handed the duo to the airport police.
“The woman did not know any language other than Bengali. So we could not make any headway in the case. Interpreters were arranged on Saturday and after a lot of coaxing, she revealed that he had brought her from her village near Dhaka, promising a good job in Malaysia. The accused paid her family members an advance for her future job.”
Rakib repeatedly tutored her to tell anyone questioning her that she was his wife, the police officer added. “The accused took the road via West Bengal and then UP or Bihar before reaching Goa. From Goa, they took a flight to Bengaluru. They started from Bangladesh on January 1,” he said.
When Rakib’s passport was checked, they found that he frequently went to Malaysia. His planning revealed that he is a habitual offender, a ‘carrier’ of humans and is part of a larger trafficking racket. Investigations are on.
The woman was sent to Ujjwala Women’s Care Centre in Devanahalli temporarily. “She has nothing on her to establish her real identity, and we are contacting the Bangladesh Embassy to help her out with a passport to send her back. We are treating her as a victim and she is innocent,” he added.