‘No one is divulging facts’: CID says probe on, 20 passengers from Gujarat in Nicaragua-bound flight grilled

financialexpress.com:

At least 20 passengers from Gujarat on board the Nicaragua-bound Legend Airlines flight, which returned to Mumbai from France, have been quizzed by police in a bid to unearth a suspected illegal immigration network that is allegedly operating from the state, according to police.

The Nicaragua-bound aircraft, an Airbus A340 carrying 276 passengers, was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking. It landed in Mumbai from France in the early hours of December 26.

A senior state Crime Investigation Department (CID) official said that the passengers who were grilled have reached their native places. They are being quizzed to ascertain whether they had plans to cross into the United States of America illegally after reaching Latin America.

“They were sent back from France. There was a rumour they had planned to enter the US illegally after landing in Nicaragua. In their statements, they told us they were going there as tourists. We are going into the details to find out who were the agents behind their trip,” said S P Rajkumar, Additional Director General of Police, CID – Crime and Railways, as quoted by PTI.

Out of the 60 people who returned, 20 passengers of the flight have been quizzed so far, the official said.

“We are verifying their documents to ascertain whether they used genuine or forged documents to proceed to Central America. We will also check their financial transactions because, ideally, they should not have paid more if they were going there as normal tourists and not with any other intention,” said the senior IPS officer.

“Though we have started questioning, no one is divulging facts. They claim they went there as tourists. We are investigating the case from all angles,” he added.

Superin