Kochi: 1 held in human trafficking case
Prabhu was picked up from Delhi. Money shortage aborted his travel
Kochi: The special investigation team probing the suspected illegal migration from Munambam has taken a man into custody from Delhi and brought here on Saturday for interrogation and evidence collection, though the officials remained tight-lipped on the development.
The suspect, identified as Prabhu, was picked up from Delhi and brought to the office of the district police chief, Ernakulam Rural.
The police said he was supposed to be part of that group, which suspected to have sailed from Munambam to Australia on Jan 12.
Sources said that his wife and kid had gone in the boat without him on that day as he was late to arrive at the spot on time. Sources said he could not join the journey for a shortage of money.
Cops interrogated Mr Prabhu at the camp office of the Rural SP in Aluva.
During the interrogation, he reportedly revealed the involvement of crores of rupees in the trafficking. According to police sources, traffickers collected '6 crore from the suspects for carrying out the journey with '1.50 lakh per adults. There was a money exemption for children.
The police, however, was not able to track down Sreekanthan, a resident of Thiruvallur near Chennai, who is one of the two to have brought the boat on which the group had left. Sources said that the probe team suspects chances of Mr Sreekanthan leaving the country with the group for Australia.
Police is also investigating the travel history of few of the suspects using copies of passports found in the abandoned bags. Latest reports said that around 200-300 people have left from Munambam.