A special court for NIA cases in Hyderabad on September 17 convicted and sentenced nine accused, including eight Bangladeshi nationals, to life imprisonment in a 2019 human trafficking case involving Bangladeshi women who were trafficked into India and subsequently forced into prostitution.The court has also imposed a total fine of Rs 1.37 lakh on the convicts, with a further sentence of three months’ simple imprisonment in default of payment of fine.The case pertains to a human trafficking network involved in trafficking Bangladeshi women into India by luring them with promises of lucrative employment and decent wages and subsequently forcing them into prostitution.The original case was registered by Telangana Police at Pahadi Shareef Police Station, Hyderabad, following an operation in September 2019, during which three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel being operated at Jalpally village, and another woman was rescued from a house at Mahimood Colony, Balapur, Hyderabad.The NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 13, 2019.During the investigation, the involvement of the accused in the trafficking network was established, following which the NIA filed a chargesheet against the accused including the absconding accused on October 17, 2020.During the investigation, the accused were arrested from different locations, including West Bengal and Telangana, in 2019 and 2020.The accused, namely Ruhul Amin Dhali, Mohd Yousuf Khan, Bithi Begum, Imamul Ghazi, Mohammed Al Mamun, Sojib Shaik, Suresh Kumar Das, Mohd Abdulla Munshi and Mohd Ayub Shaik, were prosecuted under various provisions of the IPC, the Foreigners Act, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.