A special investigation team of the Punjab Police constituted to probe incidents of human trafficking has arrested a Haryana-based immigration agent from his relatives’ place in Patiala’s Partap Nagar, the first arrest on the complaint of a US deportee.
Anil Batra, a resident of Thanesar in Kurukshetra, was arrested from his in-laws’ house on Friday evening for allegedly using fraudulent ways to send people to the US.
Batra was on Saturday produced before a local court, which sent him to three-day police custody
The arrest came a day before a second batch of 119 deportees, including 67 Punjabis, was scheduled to arrive at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport.
The state police had formed the four-member special investigation team (SIT) on February 7, two days after a US military flight carrying 104 deportees, including 30 state residents, landed at the airport. The team is led by Additional Director General of Police (NRI wing) Parveen Sinha
Other members are ADGP (Internal Security) Shive Verma, IGP (Provisioning) S Boopathi, and DIG (Border Range) Satinder Singh.
The state police have lodged at least 10 FIRs against immigration agents after a US flight landed at Amritsar on feb 5.
The police said Batra was arrested in the case lodged on February 8 for cheating, human trafficking and criminal breach of trust. Charges under the Emigration Act have also been slapped against him.
Batra is accused of facilitating illegal immigration process by arranging a Suriname visa and tickets for the complainant in the case.
“Once in Suriname, the victim — Gurwinder Singh — travelled over land to other countries in South America, such as Brazil or Colombia, where he crossed over to central America. In central America, he travelled through countries such as Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico,” a police officer said.
The officer said Gurwinder entered the US illegally with the help of traffickers and smugglers.
“As of February 14, 2025, Anil Batra’s bank account has been frozen with a balance of Rs 6.35 lakh,” he added
