(MUMBAI, LANKAPUVATH) – A British woman, arrested along with seven others including four Sri Lankans and three Britons in Mumbai earlier this month has helped two Sri Lankans to smuggled into the UK with fake passports in January, according to a report in Times of India.
The local Sahar police of Mumbai arrested eight foreign nationals, including the British woman at the Mumbai International Airport on March 15 when the Brits attempted to smuggle out the Sri Lankans with forged Indian passports.
After questioning them, immigration officials learnt that the UK nationals, aged 27-56, had joined the human trafficking ring to help the Sri Lankans reach London.
The police said that the British tourist guide Julie Ann Warner (36), has confessed that she became a carrier after meeting a Sri Lankan agent, Logarajan, six months ago.
Senior inspector of Sahar police station, BT Mukhedkar, said that the UK nationals were “not cooperating” in the probe.
The police said the agents wanted in the case had demanded Rs17 lakh each from the Lankans to help them reach the UK with fake passports which identified them as the four arrested UK nationals.
According to the Public prosecutor Neeta Pasarkar, the UK nationals gave boarding passes bearing their names for a Mumbai-London flight to the Sri Lankans. In the fake Indian passports, now seized, the agents had used the UK nationals’ names for the Sri Lankans.
It was revealed that the Sri Lankans, on reaching the UK, had planned to surrender before UK authorities, and claim that they were fleeing due to a threat to their lives from the Tigers, hoping to get political asylum in the UK.
Counsel for the British nationals, Prabhakar Tripathi, said that his clients were victims as the agents had duped them.
- Keeping up to date with breaking news while you are on the move is simple with the Lankapuvath SMS alert service.
Type: REG (space) LP and send to 2299
*Please note this service is for Mobitel users only.
