Authorities from India’s western state of Gujarat launched an investigation Tuesday into a plane which was held in Paris carrying 303 passengers from India over human trafficking suspicions.

A chartered plane carrying 303 Indian passengers, which was detained in France for four days due to suspected human trafficking, landed in Mumbai reportedly carrying 276 passengers on Tuesday. 21 of the total passengers are alleged to be from Gujarat. Commenting on the situation, a senior police official, Sanjay Kharat, stated:

Upon the return of 21 individuals to Gujarat, our team will engage in discussions with them as part of the investigation. We anticipate their cooperation in providing details on agencies making false promises. We are particularly interested in obtaining information on forged documents. Once we gather this information, appropriate actions will be taken against the involved agencies.

Authorities in Paris had been notified on December 21 through an anonymous tip that the flight, operated by the Romanian company Legend Airlines, had purportedly been engaged in human trafficking, transporting individuals from the UAE to Nicaragua. Although the landing in Paris had initially been a brief technical stop, the authorities detained the plane and its 303 passengers for four days while they probed the allegations. Upon landing, 25 individuals, including five minors, sought asylum in France. Two individuals were detained on suspicion of human trafficking. The Indian Embassy is also engaged in the matter and is conducting its own investigation. The plane was allowed to leave after four days. Foreigners in a transit zone can be detained by French authorities for up to four days for police investigations. If necessary, this period may be extended to eight days, with a judge deciding whether to prolong the detention.

Commenting on the situation, Liliana Bakayoko, a lawyer for Legend Airlines in France, stated in an interview:

All the passengers would have been cleared by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates while they were performing the check-in at the airport. So, they would have been cleared by the police, by the customs services, and nobody found any problem and everybody was allowed to board. So even if it wanted to, Legend would not have been able to find any kind of problem.

The Mumbai Police are reportedly launching their own investigation into the matter as well. According to a report, Deepak Pandey, a senior police official in Mumbai, wrote to the Mumbai police requesting they keep his office informed about the investigation. He also directed the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), who had questioned the passengers upon their return to the country, to submit comprehensive reports to the city police within 24 hours.