New Delhi: Some Indian passengers aboard the diverted Legend Airlines flight to Nicaragua were planning to travel to the US via Mexico, news reports have suggested.
Sanjay Kharat, superintendent of police in the Gujarat CID, told the Indian Express that 21 returnees the CID has so far identified as residents of Gujarat “boarded the chartered flight from Fujairah to Nicaragua to proceed to Mexico and then to the US”.
“Through primary investigation and technical analysis, we are trying to ascertain if there was a common point of contact for them,” Kharat also said, adding that officials were trying to ascertain if the passengers had been given false promises before boarding.
Around 65 passengers from Gujarat were on board the flight when it landed in France on December 21, the Indian Express‘s report said.
It cited officials as saying that those from the state who did not return to India on Tuesday (December 26) may be among those who have sought asylum in France.
A relative of one of the returnees from Punjab told the Hindustan Times that the passenger had paid Rs 4 lakh to an agent to help him reach the US via Mexico.
“The next installment was to be paid when he would have reached Nicaragua and another after reaching Mexico and the final one on reaching the final destination [the US],” the passenger’s relative told the Hindustan Times.
The newspaper also reported a Gujarat police officer as saying that officials found all passengers from the state to be carrying legal documents.
According to Reuters, 303 Indians – including 11 unaccompanied minors – were aboard the flight when it left the UAE for Nicaragua.
It stopped to refuel at the Vatry airport near Paris, where it was grounded by local authorities who said they received a tip-off indicating that victims of human trafficking may have been on board.
The aircraft remained there for four days amid legal deliberations.
Twenty-five passengers, including five minors, applied for asylum in France and remain there as of Thursday (December 28), Reuters reported.
Two other passengers were designated by French authorities as “assisted witnesses” – a status intermediate between that of witnesses and indicted suspects – after they were investigated for suspected people smuggling, Reuters’s report also said.
Prosecutors told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that a local judge had released the 25 asylum seekers on technical grounds. “They are therefore free to do as they please, even if they are in an irregular situation on French territory,” it quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying.
AFP added that the charge of human trafficking was dropped after it was established that the passengers boarded the flight of their own free will.
It is unclear why the flight landed in Mumbai instead of proceeding to Nicaragua from France.
The Indian embassy in France posted on X (formerly Twitter) thanking the French government and the Vatry airport for a “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home & hospitality”.
Police in Gujarat and Punjab are investigating the incident separately, the Hindustan Times reported.
Data from the US Customs and Border Protection revealed earlier this year that a staggering 96,917 Indians were apprehended while crossing into the United States, without documentation, between October 2022 and September 2023.