A special court in Hyderabad has sentenced nine individuals to life imprisonment for their roles in a human trafficking network that operated in 2019. Among those sentenced are eight Bangladeshi nationals. The ruling was announced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday.
During the operation, three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel allegedly being operated in the area. Another woman was rescued from a house in Mahimood Colony, Balapur. The case originated with an operation conducted by the Telangana police in September 2019 at Jalpally village in Hyderabad. The accused who were arrested during the investigation were apprehended from different locations in Telangana and West Bengal during 2019 and 2020.
The investigation subsequently revealed an organised trafficking network allegedly involved in bringing Bangladeshi women into India by promising them lucrative jobs and decent wages, according to the NIA. The special court passed the order on Thursday, according to the NIA release. The women were allegedly trafficked into the country and later forced into prostitution. During its investigation, the NIA established the alleged involvement of several persons in the trafficking network. Three of them, including the prime accused (A1), had gone absconding. The case involved the trafficking of foreign nationals into India and their alleged exploitation through forced prostitution.
It also imposed a cumulative fine of ₹ 1.37 lakh on the convicted persons. Following the initial case registered by the Telangana police at Pahadi Shareef police station in the old city of Hyderabad, the NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 12, 2019. The agency subsequently filed a chargesheet on October 17, 2020, against 12 accused persons.
“In case of failure to pay the fine, the convicts will have to undergo an additional three months of simple imprisonment, the NIA said.
The conviction follows a lengthy investigation into the trafficking network and the prosecution of the accused before the Hyderabad Special Court.
