NIA court awards life imprisonment to nine, including eight Bangladeshis in human trafficking case

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Representational image of human trafficking. | Photo Credit: GettyImages/iStockphoto

Eight Bangladeshis were among nine people sentenced to life imprisonment by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Hyderabad in a 2019 human trafficking case involving Bangladeshi women, officials said on Friday.

The court on Thursday also imposed a fine of ₹1.37 lakh on the convicts, with a further sentence of three-month simple imprisonment in default of payment of the fine, they said.

While eight of the convicts were Bangladeshis, one was an Indian national.

The case pertains to trafficking of Bangladeshi women to India by luring them with promises of lucrative employment and decent wages, and subsequently forcing them into prostitution, a statement issued by the NIA said.

The original case was registered by Hyderabad Police following an operation in September 2019, during which three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel being operated at Jalpally village, and another woman was rescued from a house at Mahimood Colony, Balapur, Hyderabad.

The NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 12, 2019.

During the investigation, the accused persons were arrested from different locations, including West Bengal and Telangana, during 2019 and 2020.

The convicts were Ruhul Amin Dhali, Mohd Yousuf Khan alias Md Imran, Bithi Begum alias Khadija Shaik, Imamul Ghazi alias Mohd Rana Hussain, Mohammed Al Mamun, Sojib Shaik, Suresh Kumar Das alias Sagor, Mohd Abdulla Munshi alias Abdul Sarkar, and Mohd Ayub Shaik. They were prosecuted under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.