Mumbai: Another navy officer arrested in human trafficking racket

Navy Lieutenant Commander Vipin Dagar was arrested on Friday. Representation Pic

In a major development in the human trafficking racket, the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested another senior officer of the Indian Navy along with his girlfriend and two civilians from Jammu and Kashmir. According to the crime branch, the Indian officers had been involved in this racket for the past 1.5 years, charging Rs 10 lakh-12 lakh per candidate. The candidates applied through them because wages in South Korea are higher than in other countries, and the involvement of Indian Navy officials made people trust them.

Earlier, the CIU busted a human trafficking racket wherein where candidates would go to South Korea, destroy their passports to seek asylum, and secure jobs with higher wages than in any other country. On Friday, the CIU arrested Navy Lieutenant Commander Vipin Dagar. Based on his interrogation, they also arrested Sub-Lieutenant Commander Brahma Jyoti Sharma, 29, and his girlfriend, Simran Jeti, a Pune resident who teaches foreign languages. Two additional arrests were made in Jammu and Kashmir involving civilians identified as Ravi Kumar and Deepak Dogra. According to the crime branch, Sharma is the mastermind in the case.

"So far, we have found 14 passports of candidates interested in going to South Korea, and we believe that several candidates were already sent abroad, with each person being charged Rs 10 lakh-12 lakh," said Lakhmi Gautam, joint commissioner (crime). Officials have stated that most of these candidates were from Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi. "However, since it is difficult to secure visas from these high-sensitive zones, the Navy officials obtained their passports from Mumbai," an officer said.

Officials received information from the South Korean embassy when Dagar was creating a ruckus at the embassy for the visa of one of his candidates from Jammu and Kashmir identified as Dr Ravi Kumar.

According to the crime branch, they discovered that the accused, Sharma, had received over Rs 1.65 crore in his account in recent years, while his girlfriend Jeti had around Rs 47 lakh. Officials also found that Jeti had opened several accounts in her family members' names, which Sharma used to transfer the proceeds of the crime. They also formed a company called Tosha International to send candidates to South Korea. The police have seized 14 passports and rubber stamps from Dagar.

"Deepak Dogra appears to have been monitoring the overall operation and identifying potential targets who wanted to go abroad on work visas. The police custody of the accused is till July 5. Further investigations are underway," said an officer.