The Punjab Police on Friday formed a special investigation team comprising four senior officers to inquire into undocumented migration and human trafficking in the wake of the recent deportation of Indian citizens from the United States, India Today reported.

On Wednesday, a US military aircraft carrying 104 deported Indian nationals landed at the Amritsar airport. Of those who were deported, 30 were from Punjab, The Indian Express reported.

The deportation was part of a wider crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which used military aircraft to repatriate undocumented migrants. This was the first military deportation of Indian citizens since Trump returned to office on January 20.

On Friday, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said that the four-member team will be chaired by Parveen Sinha, the Additional Director General of Police (Non-Resident Indian affairs).

The other members are Additional Director General of Police (Internal Security) Shive Verma, Inspector General of Police (Provisioning) S Boopathi and Deputy Inspector General (Border Range) Satinder Singh.

Yadav said that the team had been directed to take necessary action against any person found to be involved in facilitating undocumented migration or human trafficking, The Indian Express reported.

He also noted that the team had been empowered to co-opt any other police officer in the inquiry, India Today reported. They will also coordinate with the concerned senior police officers, who have been directed to provide all the required assistance and infrastructure to them, he added.

The deportation of the 104 Indian nationals from the US triggered a political row earlier this week, with Opposition leaders asking why they were cuffed on their hands and legs on the flight.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that they were shackled in keeping with past procedure.

“The standard operating procedure for deportation by aircraft used by [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement], that has been effective from 2012, provides for the use of restraints,” said the minister.

He added that New Delhi was informed by US authorities “that women and children are not restrained”.

Indian authorities are engaging with the United States to ensure that “the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight”, said Jaishankar.

He also emphasised that the process of deportation was not new and shared data from India’s Bureau of Immigration showing that 15,668 Indians have been deported from the United States since 2009.

The data showed that the number of deportees spiked from 2016 to 2020, with as many as 2,042 Indians having been deported from the US in 2019. The figures dropped from 2021 to 2023, before rising again to 1,368 in 2024.