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Malta Tragedy: 13 years later,
court orders framing of charges
WSN Network
NEW DELHI:
Thirteen years after 170 Indian youth, all of them males and a large
number of them Punjabis, died in the icy waters off the
Ionian sea
in the accident known as Malta Boat Tragedy, a
New Delhi local
court has ordered framing of charges against 20 accused, including
two policemen.
The 1996 tragedy
case in the Mediterranean Sea is largely seen as the result of
unscruplous travel agents. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
said, “I have found prima facie evidence against all the accused
persons to proceed with the criminal trial.” The Central Bureau of
Investigation, India's top domestic sleuthing agency, had registered
a case against 27 persons in 1997 under various sections of the
Indian Penal Code and Immigration Act for cheating, forgery and
human trafficking, and during pendency of the case, seven of them
died.
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New law to check
unscrupulous travel agents
New Delhi:
In what could prove to be stepping stonbe towards ending the
chaos and deadly network of fake travel agents and a plethora of
cheating practices, a draft of a new immigration law has been
prepared by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. It will now
initiate consultations with Law, External Affairs and Home
Ministries to finalise the document before tabling it in
Parliament.
Minister for
Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has said the draft provides
for more power to police to deal with unscrupulous agents who
dupe those migrating to other countries. It also aims at fixing
responsibility of agents and officials involved in the
immigration process. |
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The court
observed that no case was made out under the Immigration Act and
Passport Act.
As many as 565
illegal passengers of various countries, including India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, had boarded a ship for Italy on December
25, 1996, which met with an accident near Malta, resulting in the
drowning of 290 passengers, including 170 Indians
Balwant Singh
Khera, who has been heading the Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission,
said no family has received any compensation several years after the
tragedy. The Indian immigrants left Delhi in September 1996 on the
assurance of the travel agents that they would be smuggled into
various European countries.
The court
ordered all the accused, including policemen Jag Parvesh Chand and
B.S. Meena, to be present on August 1. An Italian court recently
awarded a 30-year jail term to Trab Ahmed Sheikh and Jarvodakiz,
members of a gang involved in international human trafficking, after
they were held guilty in the Malta boat tragedy.
8
July 2009
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