Trafficking case: Sub-agent arrested

Ludhiana: In the Jagraon woman trafficking case, a travel sub-agent has been arrested from Ferozepur’s Zira town, Ludhiana (rural) police said on Friday. The main travel agent, Rakesh Kumar of Jagraon area, has also been nominated in the case, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Satvinder Singh Virk said.Jagraon’s Sadar police had on June 4 registered a first information report (FIR) against three persons — Jaspal Kaur, a sub-agent from Zira, and her alleged accomplices Albaksh of Bengaluru and Mohammad Hisam of Oman — on the complaint of Paramjit Kaur of Ghalib Kalan village. Paramjit had claimed that she was held hostage in Oman, was forced to work as a domestic help without salary and asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to get her passport and other documents back.The FIR was registered under sections 420 (cheating), 370 (imports, exports of any person as a slave) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Punjab Travel Professional Regulation Act.DSP Virk, who is leading the investigation, said Jaspal was arrested on Wednesday. “During the investigation, it came to the fore that she was a sub-agent who had received Rs 25,000 in the case. The probe also indicated that the main agent in the case was Rakesh, who had left for Bahrain about a month ago,” he said, adding that Rakesh had reportedly got Rs 1,00,000 to facilitate the woman’s transfer.