The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has recovered 30 original passports and got hold of the names of various agents and immigration agencies running the "donkey-route" business of sending Indians abroad illegally on a "large-scale".
The federal agency said in a statement that it obtained the information following searches conducted in Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday as part of a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following the deportation of a number of Indians from the United States in February.
The word "donkey", "dunkey" or "dunki" refers to the donkey-like long and hard journey undertaken by immigrants to enter countries illegally.
Locations in cities like Amritsar, Sangrur, Patiala and Moga in Punjab and Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal in Haryana were searched by the ED. The money-laundering case stems from FIRs lodged by the police in Haryana and Punjab regarding these instances.
It was found that those willing to go to the US were "duped" by travel agents and middlemen on false promises of sending them through legal channels, the agency said.
However, they were sent to the US through the "donkey route", crossing the borders of various countries and illegally negotiating dangerous routes, with the help of "donkers" (human-trafficking conduits) and the mafia, it added.
The agents, in collusion with the "donkers" and the mafia, used to create "threatening" situations for these people in order to "extort" more money from their family members, according to the agency.
Thirty original passports were found in the house of one of the agents involved in sending the people through the "donkey route", the ED said.
It added that "credible evidence" was unearthed during the operation, indicating that agents have done cash or "hawala" transactions worth crores of rupees by duping their clients.
The names of various agents and immigration agencies, who are carrying out the illegal "donkey-route" business on a large-scale, have been unearthed, it said.