NIA secures life terms for nine, including eight Bangladeshis, in 2019 trafficking case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has secured life imprisonment for nine people, including eight Bangladeshi nationals, in a human trafficking case dating back to 2019.

A special NIA court in Hyderabad convicted the nine accused on September 17 for their involvement in a trafficking network that brought Bangladeshi women into India on the promise of employment and better wages before allegedly forcing them into prostitution.

The court also imposed a cumulative fine of Rs 1.37 lakh on the convicts. Those failing to pay the fine will have to undergo an additional three months of simple imprisonment.

The case originated with Telangana Police after an operation in September 2019 led to the rescue of three Bangladeshi women from a brothel in Jalpally village. Another woman was rescued from a house in Mahimood Colony, Balapur, Hyderabad.

The NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 12, 2019, as RC-03/2019/NIA/HYD. Its investigation subsequently established the involvement of the accused in the trafficking network.

The agency filed a chargesheet against the accused on October 17, 2020. The arrests were made from different locations in Telangana and West Bengal between 2019 and 2020.

The nine convicts have been identified as 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 the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.