ATS arrests Delhi airport customer service executive

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Thursday arrested a customer service executive of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), New Delhi, for helping the members of an international racket involved in human trafficking from Bangladesh and Myanmar to European, Gulf and Southeast Asian countries on Indian identities, Uttar Pradesh police officials said here on Friday.

The officials said a Lucknow court has granted his 10 days’ custody to ATS to interrogate him about other airport and airlines staff suspected to be involved in this racket.

Additional director general (ADG), law and order, Prashant Kumar said the arrested accused was identified as Ajay Ghildiyal, a resident of Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

He said the accused has been working as a customer service executive at the international airport since 2016.

Another senior police official said Ghildiyal came in contact with Vikram Singh, a key member of the racket who was arrested earlier in this connection, in 2020 and since then he is helping those involved in the racket to clear the boarding passes of people being sent to European countries illegally on fake identities.

He said Vikram Singh was arrested from his hideout in Ghaziabad on November 10.

The officer also said Ghildiyal used to get ₹15000 for clearing the boarding pass per person and he used to share this with other airport and airlines staff to get their favours. The accused revealed that he has so far helped send over 40 people to Spain, Britain and other European countries illegally, the officer said.

He also said the accused is part of a widespread international network of human traffickers operating from South Africa and London.

He said seven members of this international human trafficking racket have been arrested so far.

He said the traffickers helped Bangladeshi nationals to get Hindu names and Indian passports by preparing their fake address proofs like Aadhaar card and voter ID cards.

He also said the Bangladeshi nationals are later sent to different countries as Indian nationals.