The state police have constituted a four-member fact-finding committee comprising senior officers to inquire into the issue of illegal migration in the wake of the recent deportation of Punjabis from the United States.
Thirty people from the state were among the 104 Indian nationals deported on the C-17 US military aircraft that landed in Amritsar on Wednesday.
Gaurav Yadav, Director General of Police (DGP), informed that the panel will be formed under the chairmanship of Parveen Sinha, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), NRI; and will include Shive Verma, ADGP, Internal Security; Dr S Boopathi, Inspector General of Police, Provisioning; and Satinder Singh, Deputy Inspector General, Border Range.
The DGP said the fact-finding committee has been directed to take appropriate action against any person found to be involved in committing illegalities and indulging in illegal migration or human trafficking.
Yadav added that the panel has been empowered to co-opt any other police officer in the investigation process and shall maintain coordination with the concerned senior superintendents or commissioners of police, who have been directed to provide all the required assistance and infrastructural facilities to the committee.
As reported by The Indian Express on Friday, based on feedback from those who were deported from the US, the Punjab police plan to launch a targeted crackdown on travel agents who send people abroad through illegal “donkey” or “dunki” routes after promising them a legal way to migrate.
An officer said that an estimated 20,000 Indians are likely to be deported from the US in the coming days, and that many among these are likely to be from Punjab. “With each illegal migrant having paid around Rs 30 lakh to the travel agents, the entire illegal ‘donkey route’ business is worth several hundred crores, if not thousands,” said the officer.
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The police added that they have no information on whether other deportees will also arrive in military aircraft. “It could be that this flight was in a military aircraft to put up an ‘effect’ by the US authorities and other flights may be in chartered civilian flights,” an officer said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
