Delhi court denies bail to man engaged in trafficking of gullible Indian nationals to Russia

New Delhi [India], June 17 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi has dismissed a bail plea of a man allegedly engaged in the trafficking of gullible Indian nationals to Russia and duping them for better employment and high-paying jobs.
The accused with others and through their agents, trafficked Indian nationals to Russia on the pretext of getting jobs related to Russian army, security guards, helper, better life, job, education and huge amount was charged from these persons illegally.
Further, these agents or human traffickers were duping indian students/ citizens for admission in dubious private universities in Russia instead of government or public known universities, by offering them free discounted visa extensions, fee structure, etc and thereafter, the victims were left at the mercy of visa agents and college authorities.
The Special Judge Atul Krishna Agrawal in an order passed on June 7 stated that the allegations against the applicant accused (Micheal Elangovan Anthony) are grave and serious in nature. Enlarging the applicant/ accused on bail at this stage will hamper further investigation of the case.
There is also a possibility that the applicant/ accused may try to destroy the evidence which are yet to be obtained by the Investigation officer. The applicant/ accused may also assist the other accused persons in continuing to evade the process of law.
Considering all these facts and the role of the applicant/ accused as brought forth by the prosecution, there is no ground to grant bail to applicant/ accused at this stage. Accordingly, the bail application stands dismissed, said the Court.
The Court noted that after reaching Russia, the passports of these Indian nationals were taken/ snatched by agents at Russia. The victims were trained in combat roles and were provided with Russian army uniform and batches.
Thereafter, these Indian nationals were deployed in front bases, in Russia- Ukraine war zone, against their wishes and by putting their life in danger. It was also found that some human trafficking victims had also got grievously injured in the war zone.
However, the accused through counsel argued that he has been falsely implicated in the present case. He was an employee of one of the named accused Ramesh Kumar Palanisamy, whom he met last year in a garment exhibition in Russia. He started working with him as an employee in the garment business from November last year and hardly worked for him, for four months.
The said Ramesh Kumar Palanisamy also sent an invitation letter to applicant or accused inviting him to Russia for garment business, but due to ongoing war situation, he asked the applicant or accused to wait for sometime till normalcy.
It was further stated that applicant/ accused was himself a victim because an invite was also sent to him and he was offered a job in Russia by the said Ramesh Kumar Palanisamy but nothing happened.

Accordingly, the CBI the FIR was registered against the accused persons for the offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and human trafficking for the purpose of exploitation, which are punishable under Sections 120B, 420 and 370 of the Indian Penal Code.
It was further alleged against the applicant/ accused that he and Ramesh Kumar Palanisamy had stayed in a hotel room in Chennai in November - December 2020. During the said period, they had visited Russian Embassy for making liaison for obtaining visa for Russia.
The applicant or accused had arranged tickets for Nepali persons and he even tried to obtain dummy ticket for trafficking persons to Russia. (ANI)