KOCHI: More Kerala-based agents involved in trafficking of women from Kerala for a Dubai-based sex racket will soon be hooked with enforcement agencies tracking their links with UAE-based business groups that lure women to Dubai promising jobs.The state Crime Branch, which is pursuing a case relating to 68 women from Kerala who landed in the web of a sex racket in Dubai, will look into the new leads that will help them track down the remaining network of the racket in the state.
The tentacles of the racket came out when the Mumbai police identified the three Indian businessmen settled in the UAE and having a well-oiled network with a few agents who trap women offering jobs in their business establishments.Crime Branch Inspector General of Police (IG) S Sreejith said the state police have already initiated a detailed probe into the Gulf-based sex rackets operating in the state. “We will collate the latest inputs to further expand the probe,” he said.
A senior intelligence officer said the activities of the three Indian businessmen identified as Anthony Machado, Nasir Shaikh and Saleem Kodari were put under the scanner after the immigration wing at all airports and seaports received a lookout notice on the three.“We strongly suspect the three were having network with a few businessmen in Kerala who have been operating recruitment and travel agencies in Kerala,” the officer said.
Earlier, a special team probing a sex racket case had stumbled upon the details of 68 Malayalee women trapped in Dubai. It was also ascertained that an Aluva native named Mujeeb was coordinating with a Dubai native who used to help the local agents traffic women to Dubai via Sharjah from Kochi and Chennai airports.
Kerala’s link with Gulf-based sex rackets became more evident when a CBI court in Kochi in February 2018 sentenced seven persons, including three women, to rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a human trafficking case. The accused were convicted for trafficking women from Kerala to brothels in Gulf countries between 2009 and 2012.