Passengers on board the Nicaragua-bound Legend Airlines flight, which returned to Mumbai early Tuesday from Vatry airport in France, had been promised a safe passage into the US via Mexico after landing in Nicaragua, the Gujarat Crime Investigation Department (CID) said on Wednesday.
At least 21 passengers from Gujarat, on board the chartered flight from Fujairah in UAE to Nicaragua – carrying 303 passengers, mostly Indians – returned to their home state on Wednesday. The flight was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking.
The Gujarat Police said that the 21 passengers, as well as their relatives, will be questioned by the CID to ascertain their involvement in the alleged immigration racket as well as to identify the agents who had promised them a passage to the US. These passengers belong to Banaskantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Anand and Patan districts, said officers.
They added that the CID was “working closely” with central agencies that are probing the case of possible illegal immigration to the US or Canada. The CID has formed four teams, led by deputy superintendents of police, to probe the case, in which at least six agents are possibly involved.
While close to 65 people from Gujarat are on the list of 303 passengers who boarded the flight from Fujairah, the Gujarat Police has identified 21 of them as of now. Officers said that some of the residents of Gujarat may have stayed back in France, seeking asylum.
Superintendent of Police (CID) Sanjay Kharat told The Indian Express: “These 21 passengers are mostly from north Gujarat, largely from Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Anand districts. There are some from other districts too. We are currently zeroing on 21 people… the number is likely to go up. We are verifying the remaining people on board the flight and are waiting for official confirmation from the immigration department (if case there were more passengers from Gujarat)…”
“Through primary investigation and technical analysis, we are trying to ascertain if there was a common point of contact for them. They had boarded the chartered flight from Fujairah to Nicaragua to proceed to Mexico and then to the US using the donkey route…,” he added.
“Teams of the CID will reach out to them to get details of their travel. We will verify if the documents they were travelling on were genuine and who helped them get to the flight… So far, no agent has been identified… The relatives of the passengers will also be questioned,” said Kharat.
“We will also question the passengers to ascertain if they were given false promises by the agents… The agents involved in the scam will be booked,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Mehsana district police had earlier conducted a search within its jurisdiction to look for Kiran Patel, an agent whose name had cropped up in the case. Patel, a native of the district, is a known operator in illegal immigration and is believed to now be based in Ahmedabad, officers said. However, he has remained untraceable since the flight was grounded in France.
The flight, which was operated by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines had landed at Vatry on December 21 for a technical stopover when the French Police intervened. French authorities launched a judicial investigation into the conditions and purpose of the trip, with a unit specialising in organised crime investigating suspected human trafficking.
Nicaragua has become a popular destination for those seeking asylum in the US. As many as 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in the financial year 2023, signalling a 51.61 per cent jump from the previous year, according to data made available by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). At least 41,770 of those Indians attempted to enter the US via the Mexican land border, CBP data shows. Flights to Nicaragua or third countries where obtaining travel documents is easy have come to be known as dunki (donkey route) flights.
