Indian Police yesterday tackled a human trafficking racket involving six Sri Lankan Tamils by taking into custody four racketeers including a fisherman from the island nation when the job-seekers moved towards the coast at Surareddypalem, near India, on Monday.

Indian police said that the four racketeers including a Sri Lankan national and two from Chennai had brought to Ongole the six Sri Lankan Tamils with promise of safe haven in Australia in a cargo ship taking off from Prakasam coast.

The traffickers have taken US dollars worth Rs. 0.5 million from them in order to provide the required arrangements.

The Hindu reported that those taken into custody were identified as Shanmugha Lingam (47) from Sri Lanka, Barnabas (51) and his wife Anjali (46), both from Chennai, and Bhaskar (45) from Ongole.

The six Sri Lankan Tamils were moving under suspicious circumstances and on questioning they spilled the beans, Indian police sources said, adding that they were promised to be sent to Australia by sea without valid travel documents first by country boats up to 200 nautical miles and then in a cargo ship coming from either Kakinada or Visakhapatnam.

The six were being produced before an Executive Magistrate to record their confessions.

The six Sri Lankan Tamils had come to Chennai by air with valid travel documents from the island nation and were staying in Ongole for a week.