Pune/Nagpur: A woman from Nagpur has returned to India after giving the slip to the gang of human traffickers who had held her captive in a secluded place in Portugal. She had travelled out after being promised a job either in a chocolate company or at the cashier’s desk in a super market in Europe for a salary of minimum Rupees One lakh and fifty thousand. However, she escaped from there using her sharp observation and presence of mind. Back in Pune, the BJYM City President Dushyant Mohol helped her approach the police and DCP (Crime) Gauhar Hasan confirmed that an investigation is underway.
The 28-year-old graduate married woman has now lodged an FIR at Pune’s Vimantal (Airport) Police Station against eight persons on charges of forcing her into sex trade on foreign soil. The FIR names Azhar Shaikh, Kapil Mishra, Amit Kumar Jha, and Pratima Bhati in India and Anil Kumar, Vamdhas, Chaitanya, and Himmat Singh in Portugal as the accused.
The case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) and the charges under which the FIR has been filed involve: Cheating/fraud, Criminal conspiracy, Criminal intimidation, Human exploitation/trafficking, Attempt to force the woman into prostitution/sexual exploitation, etc.
As per the report in The Tarun Bharat, the woman told the police that she had been promised a well-paid job abroad, but after reaching Portugal her passport was taken away and she was confined before allegedly being transferred to the control of a beer shop owner. She was also told that until her paperwork was straightened out, she must stay under the thumb of the beer shop owner and work towards his appeasement for her own safety.
In December 2025, she saw an advertisement from a company called WeMigrate (spelling may vary) on Instagram. The company professed to offer attractive job opportunities in various European countries, including Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, at supermarkets, chocolate companies and other establishments. She was promised a monthly salary of Rs 1.5 lakh, eight hours of work and two days off every week. It is now learnt that in the year 2014, the same bunch of fraudsters had been running a similar racket before they were busted.
When she had first approached this so called immigration and job providing agency in Pune early this year, she was asked to sit in an office at the airport to file her papers, an exercise which she now realises must have been a part of a scheme designed to gain her trust. Under various pretexts, including visa, ticket and other expenses, the company allegedly took Rs 8 lakh from her before departure for Europe.
After the entire ‘immigration’ process was completed, the woman arrived first in Spain and subsequently in Portugal in May 2026. After spending a night at a location, she was taken to an unknown place, where her passport was taken away and she was confined in a room for two days. The accused then demanded Rs 40,000 for returning her passport. She managed to get her passport back by paying €600 from the money she had with her.
She was then taken to a village in Portugal and allegedly forced to work at a beer selling shop. She complained to the agents in India. However, she was allegedly told that until she received her identity card for her temporary residence, she would have to continue working there.
She was also allegedly told that two other Indian women working there informed her about the forced flesh trade angle and the inescapability of the situation that they found themselves in.
After realising that she had been cheated, the woman told the owner that she would begin work soon, thus leaving them assured that she had resigned to her fate there. The date was June 29. Once the members around her were relaxed and had let down the guard, she took off stealthily in the dead of the night (around 3-4 am) without any intimation to or without seeking permission of her captors.
Once she hit the road, as dawn approached she travelled to another city by bus. After spending the night at a bus station, she hid in a hotel the following day. She eventually flew to from Lisbon to Madrid and then to New Delhi, from where she contacted her husband and returned to Nagpur.
After she returned to India, the concerned company allegedly demanded another ₹3 lakh from her. When she refused to pay, her husband was allegedly threatened with kidnapping and murder.
The woman finally approached the police, with help from the BJYM Pune President Dushyant Mohol. A case was registered at the Airport Police Station, and Police Inspector Prashant Mane is conducting the further investigation.
Mohol is seen in an Instagram post informing that police are now probing into the expanse of the scam. Apparently, the victim from Nagpur states that there were other 20-22 year old girls too who had been around when she had been interviewed, and what has been their fate is as yet unknown. Mohol also adds that the Instagram page of the so-called immigration agents has several testimonials and hopefuls, and how many of them were legitimately sent abroad for study/work and how many were sent to perilous situations is what the police are probing now.
Both, the victim and Mohol expressed distress over the fact that the woman accused in the case was only briefly arrested by the police before she acquired bail. He stated that he was all set to approach the Maharashtra state Chief Minister to look into the matter to ensure that no other Maharashtra based girls are falling victims to such human trafficking scams.
Human trafficking is a horror that has not ended even though human race has made great strides in food availability and scientific field.
UN Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking states several cases of trafficked victims, narrating their ordeals from across the world.
She left Colombia believing an “international job offer” would give her children a better future. Instead, Yisel was trafficked, exploited and held captive for five years.
Tina (name changed for anonymity), now 27 years old, was trafficked from Kenya at just 17. A trusted family friend deceived her with promises of a job opportunity abroad.
Instead of employment and opportunity, her journey led her to Lebanon, where she endured severe labor exploitation For ten years, Tina lived in conditions marked by physical and emotional abuse.
She was deprived of her freedom and subjected to harsh, exploitative treatment. During this time, she gave birth to two children, both fathered by a national of the destination country.
Amid recurring conflict in Lebanon, a window of hope finally opened. Through a voluntary repatriation program, Tina and her two children were supported to return safely to Kenya. Returning home, however, was not the end of her struggle.
