A plane that was carrying more than 300 passengers, most of them were Indians which was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking, took a land in Mumbai on Tuesday morning, a source said.
The plane landed in Mumbai after three days when it was detained by French authorities over suspected case of human trafficking. The aircraft, an Airbus A340, landed at 4 a.m., the official said. It started from its destination at Vatry airport which is near Paris around 2:30 p.m. local time. The Nicaragua-bound flight started its original journey from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates carrying around 303 passengers while it was grounded at Vatry airport on Thursday. Vatry airport is around 150 kilometres east of Paris.
This was also the first time when the court hearings took place at an airport where all the arrangements were made within one day and hearing started in the presence of judges and other officials. It was on Sunday that the four French judges questioned the detained passengers. The hearings were a part of the court proceedings which was opened by Paris prosecutor’s office over the suspicion of human trafficking.
While the French media stated that some of the flight passengers spoke Hindi and others conversed in Tamil. It is also to be noted that the plane also includes 11 unaccompanied minors.
According to French prosecutors, there were two passengers who were in custody since Friday and their detention got extended on Saturday evening for up to 48 hours,
(With inputs from PTI)
