The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has arrested a Kenyan national from Goa for his alleged involvement in a racket linked to trafficking of African girls to India.
Newton Muthuri Kimani was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on December 9. He had come to India on a student visa, the central agency said in a statement.
A special PMLA court in Panaji sent him to ED custody till December 15, it said. The money laundering case stems from a Goa Police (Anjuna police station) FIR against two Nigerian nationals, Isralite alias Dorcast Maria and Olokpa, for their involvement in human trafficking.
The accused “used to bring young African girls to Goa on the pretext of providing jobs in the Indian hospitality industry and forced them into prostitution activities”, the agency said. Kimani, it said, was managing multiple accounts in which certain amounts were being credited on behalf of various persons involved in running the alleged human trafficking racket.
“This money generated through illegal means was being transferred to Kenya and other countries through the Mpesa app and some foreign bank accounts with the help of some suspected hawala operators,” the ED said. The agency also conducted searches in this case sometime back in the Anjuna area and “rescued” two Kenyan nationals.
Follow-up searches were conducted in Punjab and Gujarat from where “incriminating” documents and digital devices were seized, the ED said.
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