Two persons allegedly involved in the human trafficking network that pushed Indians into the Russia-Ukraine war zone were arrested on Tuesday from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in a statement.
The two accused, identified as Arun and Yesudas Junior, were arrested under Sections, 370, 420 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
With these arrests, the total arrests in the case have gone up to four.
Two other accused, identified as Nijil Jobi Bensam, a resident of Kanyakumari, and Anthony Michael Elangovan, a resident of Mumbai, were arrested on 24 April and are in judicial custody.
“On 06.04. 2024, CBI had busted a major human trafficking network running across the country targeting gullible youths on the promise of offering lucrative jobs abroad. These traffickers have been operating as organised network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like YouTube etc. and also through their local contacts/agents for highly paid jobs in Russia. Thereafter, the trafficked Indian nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed in front bases in Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes, thus putting their lives in great danger,” the CBI said in a statement.
The statement also highlighted that some of the victims also got grievously injured in the war zone.
“A case of human trafficking was registered against private visa consultancy firms and agents involved in trafficking of Indian nationals,” added the statement.
The statement said that Bensam was working in Russia on contract basis as translator and was one of the key members of the network operating in Russia for facilitating recruitment of Indian nationals in Russian Army.
Elangovan was facilitating his co-accused Faisal Baba based in Dubai and others based in Russia in getting the visa processing done in Chennai and booking the air tickets for victims to go to Russia, it added.
The CBI said Arun and Yesudas Junior were the main recruiters of the Indian nationals from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Investigation is on to arrest the other accused involved in the case, read the statement.
With inputs from agencies
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