KUWAIT: The public prosecution on Saturday released MPs Saadoun Hammad and Salah Khorsheed on KD 10,000 bail each after interrogating them in the human trafficking case in which a detained Bangladeshi lawmaker is accused, Al-Rai reported yesterday. Both MPs denied abusing their powers, as claimed by the Bangladeshi defendant, and strongly denied knowing him or having any connection with him. They added that his accusations are groundless allegations he uses to muddy the case.
Meanwhile, informed sources in the investigation department said the department ordered summoning the Bangladeshi MP's brother after receiving new information that he was an associate of the main defendant, his wife and others in human trafficking operations involving thousands of their compatriots desiring to travel to Kuwait.
Recruitment agency
According to the Bangladeshi Daily Star newspaper, sending the victims to Kuwait was conducted through a recruitment agency known as 'Job Bank International' and a travel agency owned and run by the Bangladeshi MP's brother, who was known in the business as 'Leton Chowdhry' and used to charge every person they sent to Kuwait the equivalent of KD 1,800-2,500 in Bangladeshi takas.
Investigations also showed that the brother used to collect the sums and deposit them in several bank accounts belonging to him and his brother. The sources added that Bangladeshi detectives had arrested the recruitment agency's chief accountant on Aug 20 and that he provided detectives with valuable information.
In this regard, the Bangladeshi investigation department's deputy manager Imtiyaz Ahmed told the Daily Star that "We managed to get valuable information and names of new suspects involved in smuggling people to Kuwait and we are currently analyzing the information to verify whether the suspects are actually involved." Meanwhile, high-ranking sources at the investigations department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Daily Star that a search is on for the Bangladeshi MP's brother.
Fatal accidents
In other news, three Kuwaitis died from burn injuries and a fourth was hurt in a two-vehicle collision between along Abdali farms road, Al-Rai reported quoting security sources. The three bodies were recovered by forensics while the injured person was rushed to Jahra Hospital for treatment, the sources noted. In a separate accident, an Indian man died after a vehicle ran him over in Mahboula. The car's driver, Egyptian, turned himself in, said security sources, noting that the victim died in hospital.
Separately, police intervened to break up a fight that started as a dispute between two female neighbors over taking the garbage out, and escalated into an all-out brawl. Case papers indicate that a Kuwaiti woman knocked at her neighbor's door asking her to remove the trash she had allegedly thrown at her doorstep, which the neighbor refused, starting a fight in which each assaulted the other. Rushing to the scene, security forces controlled the matter and both were taken to the station, where a case was filed pending further investigations.