The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has granted bail to five accused in the human trafficking case involving 23 Sri Lankan nationals who illegally landed in Madurai and were arrested by the Q Branch police.
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Justice B. Pugalendhi granted bail with conditions to the accused N. Alangara Sakkratis, R. Nicholos, S. Jegatheeswaran, M. Rasool and A. Abdul Muheethu, all Indians who were said to have been involved in transporting the Sri Lankan nationals. Earlier, the court had granted bail to Satham Hussain, another accused in the case.
The case of the prosecution was that the Sri Lankan nationals believed the words of another Sri Lankan national Kannan alias Mayuran, who had promised them lucrative jobs in Canada. He had taken them in three fibre boats on April 27 and dropped them in a launch in mid-sea. They arrived in Thoothukudi on April 28.
The Sri Lankan nationals then reached Madurai secretly. Two other accused in the case Ashok Kumar and Kasiviswanathan picked them and dropped them at a body building unit. It was alleged that they stayed at the unit for more than 40 days without any documents and were not provided proper food and accommodation.
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Based on secret information, Q Branch police arrested the accused in the case, including the Sri Lankan nationals A case has been booked for human trafficking and under the provisions of the Passports Act and the Foreigners Act.