Express News Service
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Police have denied that six members of two families from a village in Gandhinagar district were kidnapped by human traffickers while on a visit to Istanbul. The two families, comprising two couples and two children, had become untraceable after reaching Turkey on a visitor visa earlier this month, a senior police officer said. However, they are safe and currently staying at a hotel in Turkey. They are also in touch with their families back home and will return in the next two-three days, the police said.
While probing the case of a Gujarati family of four freezing to death on US-Canada border recently, police came across a video in which a few people alleged that the Gandhinagar families had been kidnapped in Istanbul.However, according to a senior police officer of the Ahmedabad crime branch, the parents of the two couples denied any such thing. The crime branch also questioned the agent through whom the families had acquired visitor visas.
“Once they return, we will talk to them and find out what exactly happened to them and what were their plans after landing in Turkey,” said the officer when asked if the two families were trying to migrate illegally to any foreign country. The officer ruled out any connection between the two incidents in Canada and Turkey.
The matter came to light after the crime branch launched the preliminary probe into the alleged involvement of local agents following the death of four members of a family who died due to extreme cold while attempting to cross into the US from the Canada border.
