While Canada is probing the immigration scam pulled off by Indian origin agent Brijesh Mishra which left 700 students harried, an Indian origin driver in the US is making headlines for executing the most bizarre human trafficking racket.
Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill a resident of California has been arrested and sentenced for three years for smuggling around 800 Indians to US from Canada in his Uber. Gill has reportedly confessed smuggling these people over the last four years across the northern border and into Washington State. The 49-year-old was a key member of a smuggling ring which took $5,00,000 for plying over 800 Indian citizens using ride-hailing app Uber. According to US district court, Gill will be spending around three years in prison for “conspiracy to transport and harbour certain aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit money laundering”. The Court asserted that Singh’s actions posed not only a security threat to Washington but also exposed the smuggled individuals to various security and safety risks throughout their arduous smuggling journey from India to the United States, which often spanned weeks.
The court and US law agencies emphasised Singh’s involvement in this conspiracy took advantage of the aspirations of Indian nationals seeking a better life in the US, while burdening the smuggled individuals with an overwhelming debt that could reach up to $70,000.
Investigations reveal starting from July 2018, Singh and his co-conspirators utilized Uber as a means of transportation for people who had illegally crossed the border from Canada to the Seattle area. Over the period spanning from mid-2018 to May 2022, Singh executed 600 trips for human trafficking. It may be noted that alarm bells rang for US Customs and Border Protection as a sharp rise was reported in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally from Canada into the United States in the past six months.
Between October and March, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered a total of 100 individuals who had crossed the Canada-U.S. border from Manitoba into either North Dakota or Minnesota. This six-month tally surpasses the total number of illegal border crossers encountered by U.S. authorities in the last one year. Post Gill’s arrest the Indian agencies too are probing his involvement in any cases registered here. It may be noted Brijesh Mishra, arrested by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for allegedly defrauding students has 12 complaints against him in Punjab. Interestingly, FIR’s were registered in six cases but Mishra was never arrested. The Punjab police is planning to soon launch extradition proceedings against him. A red-corner notice is also likely to be issued against him shortly.
