Four AISATS staffers and an Indian passenger bound for the UK were apprehended at the Delhi airport by CISF personnel for their alleged involvement in a human trafficking racket, a senior officer said Thursday.
The incident took place on Wednesday at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport when the activities of a passenger, supposed to fly to Birmingham on an Air India flight, were found suspicious, he said.
The security personnel scanned CCTV footage and found that immigration officials first refused to allow the passenger as his travel documents were "doubtful" and they asked him to come back with airline officials for clarification, a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) spokesperson said.
The passenger, however, did not go to the airline staff but approached an AISATS staffer, he said.
It was found that efforts were made to onboard the passenger using "wrong or invalid" documents by AISATS staffers from the crew check-in counter, the spokesperson said.
AISATS is a 50-50 joint venture between Air India Limited (a part of the TATA Group) and SATS Limited and its staffers render services like ramp handling, load control, flight operations, baggage handling and other aircraft services.
Four AISATS staffers identified as Rohan Verma, Mohammad Jahangir, Yash and Akshay Narang along with the passenger named Diljot Singh were handed over to Delhi Police which later booked a case against them, the spokesperson said.
This looks to be a suspected case of human trafficking as the AISATS staffers told CISF personnel that an amount of Rs 40,000 per passenger was being charged for letting them board the flight illegally, he said.
Early this week, a Nicaragua-bound aircraft carrying 276 passengers, mostly Indians, was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking.
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