India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charges against two men linked to a human trafficking ring that smuggled people from India to the US through the dangerous “dunki” route. The accused face charges of human trafficking and cheating desperate migrants seeking better lives abroad.
The two men are Sunny from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district, and Shubhal Sandhal, also known as Deep Hundi, from Delhi’s Peeragardhi area. Authorities arrested them in July this year, just months after nabbing the ringleader, Gagandeep Singh—nicknamed Goldy—from Delhi’s Tilak Nagar neighborhood.
This case started with a local police report in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district at the Goindwal station. It involved sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act of 2014. The NIA took over on March 13, ramping up the probe into illegal immigration networks.
Investigators say Sunny played a key role as a “donkar,” the term for guides who lead migrants on risky paths. From 2021 to 2023, he lived in Mexico and teamed up with Goldy and others to help people cross borders illegally. They even held victims captive at times. Sunny pocketed payments through hawala channels—unofficial money transfers—and bank wires. Even after heading back to India in 2023, he kept things running, handling logistics, more hawala deals, and sending fresh groups via the dunki route.
Sandhal, based in Delhi, acted as a hawala operator for the group. He gathered cash from Indian clients dreaming of US visas and funneled it overseas through underground networks. His job? Smoothly shuffle the dirty money across India, Mexico, and the US to fuel the smuggling operation.
The NIA’s work uncovers how these syndicates exploit innocent folks with fake promises of legal entry. Right now, the agency is digging deeper into other suspects and cracking down on similar human trafficking outfits preying on vulnerable people.
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