Three arrested for illegally taking minors to Europe

We found the activities of Pawar, Ahmed and Forooque suspicious. Once our informant confirmed that they were taking children to France illegally, we nabbed them.

The Mumbai crime branch on Thursday busted a racket in which children were sent to Europe on fake documents and arrested three people. They work as cameramen and hair stylist in the film industry and claimed to have worked with famous producers.

They were arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport before they could board a flight to France with four children from Punjab aged between 14 and 16 years.

A crime branch team will soon visit Punjab to arrest a man who they suspect helped the trio. According to sources, he convinced parents to send their children to Europe at an early age so that they could apply for citizenship on turning 18 and he charged each family Rs2 lakh.

The gang, in total charged Rs10 lakh from each child’s parents to send their kid to Europe on fake documents. These children would, after turning 18, apply for citizenship in the country they had been living in.

The arrested accused — Arif Shafi Farooque, 38, Rajesh Pawar, 47, and Fatima Farid Ahmed, 48, — worked as a cameraman, assistant cameraman and hair stylist, respectively.

“We found the activities of Pawar, Ahmed and Farooque suspicious and they were with four boys. Once our informant confirmed that they were taking children to France illegally, we immediately nabbed them,” said an officer from the anti-robbery and dacoity squad of the Mumbai crime branch .

“Initially, they claimed the four children were their sons. But when we searched them, we recovered the visas and fake documents. During interrogation they revealed that the mastermind was Farooque,” said additional commissioner of police (crime branch), KMM Prasanna.

The children’s fake documents had been prepared using the accused’s surname, said a crime branch officer. he added that the trio also confessed to have taken 15 children to Europe earlier.

After reaching France, the accused used to leave the children there and after returning to India destroy their fake documents, added an officer.