Lucknow:The Crime Branch claimed to have unearthed a human trafficking racket following the arrest of three persons from two hotels in Naka area in Lucknow on Tuesday. The police rescued three girls, all residents of Nepal, from the hotels.

Five fake passports were also recovered from the arrested persons who have been identified as Chakra Bahadur Singh of Goregaon in Mumbai, Burham Ahmed of Balia Kokar in Kolkata and Harish Rajput, the owner of Hotel Triveni. Radheyshyam Agarwal, the owner of another hotel where the raid was carried out, is, however, absconding.

The Lucknow DIG, Rajiv Krishna, said the hotel owners have been booked for facilitating the accused in running the racket from their places. The accused were staying in the hotel for the last six months and have sent nearly 200 girls to the Middle East, said the police.

According to SP (Crime), G P Chaturvedi, Ahmed has confessed that he has been running the racket for the last five years.

The modus operandi of the gang was to lure girls from financially weak families and send them to the Gulf on fake passports from Lucknow and Mumbai.

The accused, who used to get around Rs 20,000 per month for sending one girl, sent anything between Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 to the girl’s family. The police have passed on the information to the Central agencies for a probe. (indianexpress)