Iraq-returned youth arrested for human trafficking, cheating

BATALA: The youth who a year ago had revealed that all 39 youths working with him at Mosul in Iraq had been done to death by ISIS has been arrested on charges of cheating and human trafficking.

Harjeet Masih, trapped in Mosul for months, had managed to retur n to India in May 2014. Masih, a resident of Kala Afghana in Fatehgarh Churrian, had created a sensation by his shocking revelation.

Giving information, Batala SSP Daljinder Singh said Gurpinder Kaur, resident of Boyewal village, currently living in Hoshiarpur, had lodged a complaint with the Union ministry of external affairs, alle ging that his brother Manvinder Singh was lured for a job in Dubai for which Harjeet and his cousin Rajbir took Rs 2 lakh, but they instead sent him to Iraq.

The complaint was marked to the Batala police, which after conducting an inquiry, registered a case under Sections 420, 406 and 370 of the IPC against Harjeet and Rajbir.

The SSP said Section 370 had been slapped against them after it was learnt that the two had cheated nearly a dozen youths by sending them to Iraq on forged documents. Moreover, they were not registered travel agents, he added.

After his arrival from Iraq, when the intelligence agencies let him go, Harjeet had claimed that all his 39 fellow youths had been killed, after which agencies contacted the Indian embassy in Iraq to know the truth. But despite passing of more than a year, there has been no clue to the missing youths.