Mangalore, September 14: Five of the 13 human traffickers of Sri Lankan Tamilian refugees, who were remanded to police custody on Tuesday, were on Thursday remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
The accused who have been remanded to judicial custody are Dinesh Kumar, 27, of CR camp in Paramathiveloor taluk in Nammakal, Yakoob, 40, of Kuniyamuthur of Coimbatore, Saleem of Gramini Street Thavarassa, 46, of Okkaveelbeed, Tulkai in Sri Lanka, a former LTTE soldier, , Valajapet in Vellore district and Shahjahan, 33, of Koyyamarkad of Kanjikod post, Palakkad district. Shahjahan is an Indian national.
Mangalore city police who busted the first instance of human trafficking from Karnataka shore on Saturday had sought the custody of these accused for further interrogation.
Police have recovered Rs 5.68 lakh from the possession of these accused and are on the lookout for one more accused who is suspected to be in hiding in Kerala.
The five accused whose custody police sought are the ones who played an important role in arranging local logistics for the Sri Lankan Tamilian refugees to go to Australia and police wanted to ascertain the exact role played by each of them in this affair.
In a related development, Madhava Suvarna of Chitrapura, owner of Sri Raksha, the boat in which the traffickers planned to take the refugees to Australiahas obtained bail.
