Mumbai: The Mumbai police caught eight persons at the international airport while they were being sent to London illegally by posing as students participating in an exchange programme, an official said, adding that the crime branch has taken over the probe.

The accused, seven of them posing as students of a Haryana-based private university and one as a professor, have been charged with human trafficking, he said. As per the initial probe, the accused wanted to settle in the UK.

They were caught at the immigration checkpoint of the airport in the early hours of Monday. The accused allegedly used forged documents and furnished false information to procure visas to the UK.

They were travelling to London via Jeddah, the official said, adding that their agent had demanded Rs 20 lakh from each of them to facilitate their immigration illegally. The Bureau of Immigration initially found that two of them were travelling to London on UK visit visas.

The official said that on questioning, the travellers said they were participating in a student exchange programme through a Om Sterling Global University in Hisar with their professor, Vijender.

However, they were unable to provide details about the varsity they were heading to. The official said that the fake professor told the authorities that he was travelling with seven others to London on the Haryana varsity's instructions.

He claimed that he met the travellers and an agent, identified as Bittu, at a hotel in Delhi and was taking them to London on his instructions. The travellers told the immigration authorities that the agent helped them procure visas by submitting forged documents to the UK Embassy, the official said.

The accused have been identified as Kumar Chand, Pankaj Ram, Praveen Singh, Karandeep Jaswinder, Jaskiran Singh, Harmandeep Singh, Vijender Chand, and Gurpreet Singh—all residents of Haryana and Punjab. A case has been registered against them under sections 143 (trafficking) and 336(2) (forgery) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and Passport Act.

Earlier, the police had busted a human trafficking racket by arresting a man who had sent over 80 persons to Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands and Poland on forged passports and visas.