Around 50 people smuggled out of Munambam to Christmas Island?

Kochi

: Around 50 people, including women and children, who arrived from Delhi and stayed in the popular beach destination of Cherai for close to a week have gone missing since January 12. The group, who came in the guise of tourists, is believed to be of Tamil origin and are suspected to have been smuggled out in a large motorised boat from the nearby harbour of

Munambam

to Christmas Islands, 4,000 kms away from the Kerala coast and some 1,500 km northwest of the Australian mainland.

Top intelligence sources told TOI that the incident indicated a well-coordinated operation, possibly involving international groups specialising in human

trafficking

. During their stay at Cherai, a couple of individuals representing the group bought a fishing boat ‘Devamatha’ paying Rs 1.02 crore in hard cash. They also purchased 12,000 litres of diesel paying Rs 10 lakh upfront in cash. “The pump offered to pay them the balance amount of Rs 55,000. But they didn’t take the money,’’ sources said. The group also bought five water tanks, each capable of holding more than 1,000 litres, from a local shop and purchased medicines for a month, signs that the group had planned a long stay in the waters.

“We are yet to confirm if it’s a case of

human

trafficking as the whereabouts of those missing are yet to be traced. But considering evidence so far, like abandoned bags filled with supplies for a long journey, we strongly suspect that these people were trafficked by sea. A special investigation team of 14 members has been constituted under Ernakulam Additional SP M J Sojan. A case has been registered under section 102 of CrPC,” Ernakulam (Rural district) SP Rahul R Nair told TOI.

Police suspect that Cherai and nearby Munambam harbour were chosen for a reason.

Around 300 fishing boats operate from Munnabam every day and the security there is notoriously lax. Plans to have CCTV camera have, local officials said, remained on paper for more than five years.

The address provided by the group (TOI is in possession of three Aadhaar cards that were furnished as identity proofs by the group) shows they were residents of Madangir in South Delhi. The incident has occurred just two weeks ahead of Republic Day, and has embarrassed the state police, Navy, Coast Guard and other security agencies who are working in tandem to conduct operation Sea Vigil on January 21 and 22, a coastal exercise aimed at securing the Kerala coast. ``The manner in which the group used Kochi and areas off Thrissur to launch a huge group raises many questions,’’ a top officer said. “Three ships including two of the Coastguard, have been asked to extend their service for search operations,” a spokesperson of Southern Naval Command said.

On January 5 morning, two persons arrived at Sea Star resort in Cherai and asked for rooms for 40 persons. “The resort staff replied that they had only two rooms. As not enough rooms were available, the group split and stayed in five homestays in and around Cherai area. They booked rooms for two nights,” police said. “They were mostly speaking in accented Hindi and Tamil. Some spoke in English but hardly anyone heard them speaking in Malayalam. They made all payments by cash; there was no card payment and no one was seen using a mobile phone,” a staffer at a Cherai hotel, which the group frequented, said.

They had initially booked rooms for two nights but on January 7 they extended their stay saying that their bus had been cancelled due to the nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9. “While some claimed that the bus would take them to Kanyakumari, others said that they were planning to go by bus to Rameshwaram,” police said.

``We have seen large groups coming reaching here from Mandapam and other areas of Rameshwaram. But a group from Delhi is a first,’’ sources said. “They were mostly families, with children in the age group of 6 months to 8 years. “Five women were pregnant. One woman had a baby at a hospital near Kochi,’’ sources added.

The group stayed at Cherai till January 11 night and checked out between 10.30 pm and 1.30 am. “All of them gathered outside Beach Valley homestay and according to the security-man there, a bus and tempo traveller arrived at around 5 am and they left the place,” police said.

The first sign that something was amiss came when security guards noted that four to five bags had been left behind at one homestay. The first assumption was that the bags had been forgotten but next morning joggers on the beach found more bags. Police was alerted. Police are also probing reports that about 52 bags were seen found abandoned at Kodungallur temple.


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