Mansa family kidnapping in Iran: visa agent arrested from Delhi

Gujarat Police have nabbed a key accused involved in the illegal migration of a Mansa family, members of whom were abducted in Iran while trying to migrate to Australia.

In a shocking case of cross-border human trafficking, the family from Bapupura village in Mansa taluka ended up being trafficked to Iran and held captive by a gang that demanded ₹2 crore from their relatives for their release.

According to police officials, the family had contacted an agent promising to facilitate passports and visas for their migration to Australia. The accused initially arranged their travel from Ahmedabad airport to Bangkok and then onward to Tehran, Iran.

Once in Iran, the family members were held hostage at an undisclosed location, subjected to physical torture, and videos of the ordeal were sent to their relatives in India along with the ransom demand.

After the ransom demand was fulfilled, the traffickers released the victims, who later returned to India and lodged a formal complaint at the Mansa Police Station.

Taking cognisance of the seriousness of the crime, DIG Gandhinagar Range V N Yadav and S P Ravi Teja Vasamsetti directed the Special Operations Group (SOG) to conduct an in-depth investigation and trace the human trafficking network.

Under Police Inspector V D Valana, multiple SOG teams conducted coordinated raids across Delhi and several locations outside Gujarat.

The operation led to the arrest of Jarikh Ahmed Khan, son of Shafiq Ahmed Khan, a resident of Mudiya Mohalla, Bazpur, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand, who had been operating as a passport and visa agent in Delhi.

The accused is currently under police remand, and further investigations are underway to identify and apprehend other members of the human trafficking syndicate involved in the racket.