Editor-DN
Princeton: Four persons of Telugu origin have been arrested in the US for their alleged involvement in a major human trafficking scheme. Texas police arrested four including a couple in a major human trafficking operation.
The arrests come in the wake of the discovery of 15 young women in squalid conditions during a police raid on a March welfare concert on Ginsburg Lane in Collin County, Texas.
The women were allegedly forced to sleep on the floor in the house, which was devoid of furniture but filled with computer electronics. A pest control company was called to the home for a possible bed bug problem and alerted authorities to the presence of several young women who were extremely carefree.
Accused Chandan Dasireddy (24), Dwarka Gunda (31), Santosh Katkuri (31) and Anil Malle (37) have been booked for human trafficking, a second-degree felony. Under Texas law, the accused could be sentenced to a minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
According to Princeton police, the accused allegedly forced the victims to work for various shell companies owned by Katkuri and his wife Dwarka Ganda. Investigation revealed that the victims, including both women and men, were employed as programmers.
Authorities seized numerous laptops, phones, printers and forged documents from residences on Ginsburg Lane in Princeton, Melissa and McKinney and other premises connected to the incident.
The Dwarka gangster was arrested back in March when he was busted, and Chandan was arrested in June last month.
The IT industry is notorious for this scheme. Body shopping. Body shopping is a process whereby a firm (body shop) recruits and trains IT workers and then outsources them to third parties, including shell companies. Body shops sponsor workers to move to a new country with no job opportunities, and make them ‘bench’ so that they can only meet their bare minimum needs.
Later, such firms employ their workers to feed larger companies’ outsourced projects, and make a profit for themselves. In short, body shop workers, who often live in poor conditions, are seasonally employed and will not be afforded occupational protections under the law.
Telugu states are notorious for being a prominent source of body shopping due to the abundance of cheap labor with skills required for the IT industry.
This post was last modified on July 9, 2024 at 10:22 am.
