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A Nicaragua-bound flight with 303 Indians onboard was grounded in France last week over suspicion of human trafficking. The flight is expected to leave the Vatry airport and arrive in India later on Monday (Dec 25). As France launched an investigation into the matter, news has emerged that an alleged kingpin of a human trafficking case in the Indian state of Gujarat is linked to the Nicaragua-bound Airbus A340.

Citing sources in Indian security agencies, a report by The Times of India (TOI) on Monday said that Shashi Kiran Reddy, the alleged kingpin of last year's Dingucha case, let off by the Gujarat police for lack of evidence, was likely the mastermind in the grounded Nicaragua-bound flight case.

The sources told TOI that of the passengers onboard the Airbus A340 at Vatry airport, 96 were from Gujarat.

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What is the 2022 Dingucha case?

In January last year, four members of a family- Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishali Patel (37), and their two children Vihangi Patel (11) and Dharmik Patel (3) were found dead near Canada's Emerson. The Patels, who belonged to Gujarat's Dingucha village, had frozen to death while attempting to illegally cross into the United States from Canada.

As per the TOI report, it was found that Jagdish's brother Mahendra had organised the journey to the US. One of the sources told the publication that Mahendra was working with Shashi Kiran Reddy and they had sent thousands of people from Gujarat to the US.

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Also read: 11 minors among 303 Indian passengers on flight grounded by France: Report

The source added that Reddy prepared documents of Jagdish and his family, and coordinated with offshore human smugglers to help them cross the US border. Three other people were arrested in this case.

A smuggling network operating for 15 years

The TOI report further said that Reddy has been running a human smuggling network for the last 15 years, arranging flights from Dubai to Nicaragua. From here, people were illegally taken to the US, the sources also told the publication.

In the Airbus A340 of Legend Airlines that was grounded in France last Friday, passengers of the flight were questioned for two days. Two passengers have been detained to verify whether their role "may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives."

(With inputs from agencies)