Human trafficking racket: Accused Navy officers, aide showed carpenter as dentist

MUMBAI: Ravi Kumar (30), was a carpenter by profession, but in his visa application for South Korea, the arrested Navy officers showed him as a dentist from Nashik. When police visited his clinic in Nashik, they found there was no doctor by that name and the dispensary was run by another woman dentist who has nothing to do with the case. Police said this is just the tip of the iceberg in the human trafficking racket involving two senior Navy officers.
Last week, the Crime Intelligence Unit arrested lieutenant Vipin Dagra of Indian Navy for allegedly aiding and abetting human trafficking racket by sending people to South Korea on forged documents for money. Police on Sunday arrested three more persons — Dagra’s boss sub lieutenant Brahma Jyoti Sharma, his friend Simran Deji, Ravi Kumar and Deepak Mehra. City crime branch on Monday produced Ravi and Deepak, who were caught from their village Ranbir Singh Pura in Jammu, before the 37th Metropolitan Magistrate court. They were remanded to police custody.
During investigation, police learnt that Ravi wanted to settle in South Korea. However, when the embassy delayed his visa, Dagra went to South Korea Embassy in Navy uniform to speed up Ravi’s visa saying he was his brother. “When embassy officials told Dagra the delay was due to verification process, Dagra sent a threatening mail from official Navy email address to pressurise them,” said a source. The accused had allegedly sent at least 10 people, mostly from Jammu, to South Korea on forged documentation. Brahma Jyoti’s bank account showed he had accumulated over Rs 1 crore in 8 years. — Ahmed Ali