As part of its investigations into money laundering in a ‘dunki’ route case involving illegal Indian immigrants who were deported by the US in February, the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches in several cities of Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday.
ED officials said offices and houses of suspects and agents in at least 11 cities, including Amritsar, Sangrur, Patiala and Moga in Punjab and Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal in Haryana, are being raided.
This case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act relates to 17 FIRs registered by the police in Punjab and Haryana against travel/visa agents and middlemen who cheated various people wanting to enter the US illegally. The ED recorded the statements of some of these deportees after they were deported to India in US military planes. ED officials said the names of some suspects have emerged on the basis of the statements and ongoing investigations, and they are being searched.
The agents used to dupe innocent people wanting to settle abroad on the pretext of sending them to the US through legal channels and flights. Rather than going through the legal route, they used to send gullible people through illegal routes by making them cross the borders of many countries illegally through dangerous jungle pathways in collusion with 'donkers' and mafias. They used to charge anything in the range of Rs 45-50 lakh from each of them, and extract more money from them later on by taking advantage of their helplessness.
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