iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Four people of Indian origin have been charged with running an alleged human trafficking scheme in Texas. The accused were arrested in March by Princeton Police Department, while details are coming out now.
As per reports, the four have been identified as Chandan Dasireddy, 24, Dwaraka Gunda, 31, Santhosh Katkoori, 31, and Anil Male, 37. Dasireddy, Gunda and Katkoori are residents of Melissa, while Male lives in Prosper.
Princeton PD arrested the four after executing a search warrant at Katkoori’s residence on Ginsburg Lane. During the operation, law enforcement officials found at least 15 adult women, who were ‘alleged victims of human labor trafficking’, reported Fox 4 News.
Police also seized multiple cell phones, laptops, printers, and fraudulent documents during the search. Princeton Police Sgt. Carolyn Crawford told the news outlet that over a 100 people are involved. She said out of the 100, more than half are victims.
Meanwhile, it’s a pest control company who sounded the alarm. While carrying out their work, pest controllers found several women sleeping on the floor in different rooms. They also noticed big bags in each room. Sensing that something was wrong, the workers contacted the police, leading to the investigation and the eventual arrests.
Santhosh Katkoori’s attorney has released a statement, urging the public to withhold judgment.
“These workers were in the IT field and nothing about this was forced labor,” part of the statement read, as quoted by Fox 4 News.
“Princeton PD has taken a “shoot-first, aim-later” approach. As a simple example, they claim to have seized computers, studied the details of the operation, then made arrests. But they arrested Mr. Katkoori on the same day they took his computer and only a day after the initial report – a fact easily verifiable on the county website.
“We’re not privy to details of the investigation, but I’m sure we’ll find even more inconsistencies because Santhosh is innocent of human trafficking. We won’t litigate this in public, and we only ask people to withhold judgment,” it said.
