NIA files charge sheet over illegal immigration through ‘donkey route’
Sunny, a resident of Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala, and Shubham Sandhal alias Deep Hundi, from Peeragarhi in Delhi, arrested in July this year, have been among those named
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet in the case related to illegal immigration to the US via the “donkey route”, saying the traffickers collected money for it and remitted it abroad through “hawala”.
Sunny, a resident of Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala, and Shubham Sandhal alias Deep Hundi, from Peeragarhi in Delhi, arrested in July this year, have been among those named in the charge sheet. Gagandeep Singh alias Goldy, identified as the main kingpin, was arrested in March.
In a statement on Thursday, the NIA said it found Sunny was actively involved in trafficking via the “donkey route”. It added that he was based in Mexico from 2021 to 2023 and connived with Goldy and others to facilitate illegal border crossings and unlawfully detain the victims. “He received payments through hawala and bank transfers. Even after returning to India in 2023, he continued coordinating logistics, managing hawala transactions, and directly sending victims via the dunki [donkey] route,” the statement said.
The agency called Sandhal a hawala agent “mainly engaged in facilitating illegal fund transfers for the human trafficking syndicate, led by Goldy and his associates”.
The NIA cited investigations and said Sandhal collected money from Indian clients and remitted it abroad using the hawala network. “His role was to smoothly manage and move the illicit funds across India, Mexico, and the US as part of the illegal immigration racket,” the agency said.
The NIA said Goldy, who did not possess any licence/legal permit/registration for sending people abroad, used the “donkey route” to transport people to the US via Spain, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. It added that the agency continued with its investigation against other accused in the case, and worked “to dismantle similar illegal trafficking syndicates involved in cheating and exploiting innocent people with false promises of legal visa”.
The US has since January 2025 deported 388 undocumented Indian immigrants. Of these, 333 were flown on three special flights to Amritsar. A Punjab Police Special Investigation Team probing trafficking networks has registered over a dozen cases.
An official said the NIA is in touch with law enforcement agencies in the US and Canada over trafficking agents based in those countries. The Enforcement Directorate is also probing illegal immigration to the US and Canada via the student visa route.
