Int'l trafficking of girls: Couple, aide arrested

In a major breakthrough in an international child trafficking case, Kolkata Police arrested three persons including a couple on charges of trafficking girls to foreign countries.

Police arrested the accused a 40-year-old man Sajid Khan Pathan, his wife Parveen and one Asad Omar.

The couple is resident of Collin Lane near Park Street while Asad is a resident of Imdad Ali Lane at Taltala.

Acting on a tip-off, police conducted raids in their houses and arrested the accused.

The accused were remanded to the custody of police till July 11 after being produced before the Bankshall Court on Monday. A police officer said that Sajid and Parveen have two minor twin daughters. Using the identity of their daughters, the couple used to traffick minor girls. So far, the police found in their probe that they had trafficked girls twice to USA and Mexico.

They used to make fake passports and visas in the names of their twin daughters to traffick other girls.

After going through different documents, the police learnt that they had undertaken journey to US and Mexico for three times in the past one year.

Around 20 Indian passports along with visas to foreign countries in the name of different people, several mobile phones and a laptop have been recovered from the trio.

Investigation revealed that Asad used to act as middlemen and his task was to induce girls to send them to abroad after assuring them bright future there.