In Punjab's Rs 500 crore a year human-trafficking industry a new kind of sport has come to light. It is called kabootarbaazi-helping people land overseas on a genuine visa, but one secured by having the aspirant adopt any one of these common fraudulent guises: sportsperson, artist, preacher or a minister's personal staff.

LOST SOULS: The bid to trace the missing cricketers (with faces circled) has failed. Gurcharan (right) disappeared on a US tour.

So when five women players of a dubious cricket team from Jalandhar went missing in London, the only surprise in Punjab was the gender of these "kabootars". Two of the five girls returned but this case is just the tip of the iceberg.

Though there are no authentic figures, every year around 500 youths from Punjab are estimated to reach foreign shores through this "sporting" route. Let alone fake sportspersons, even the tales of promising players-some of whom were India's medal winners in global competitions-doing the disappearing act abroad are legion. In the recent past, two Punjab boxers-Lakha Singh and Gurcharan Singh who had won medals in the Asian Games and represented India in the Olympics-jumped ship. They disappeared while on an official sporting tour in the US.

The well-oiled migration mafia is now an open secret in Punjab. But the lesser-known dimension is the involvement and patronage of the state police officials, sports authorities and some politicians in the multi-layered racket that has a deep nexus with shady travel agents and some NRIs who form crucial conduits. A Punjabi diaspora in Britain and north American countries helps the runaway sportsmen from the state melt away into their communities with ease. The entire trade has been a big money-spinner for several police officials who are plugged as office bearers in most of the official sports bodies and private sports organisations.

A section of top brass of the Punjab Police has been under the cloud for facilitating human smuggling through the "sporting" route by sending teams to foreign countries. The Punjab Armed Police (pap)-employer of a large number of sportspersons-has almost become the hub of this nefarious activity.

The modus operandi is simple: the kabootars are included in the official teams going abroad, where they simply disappear. Alternatively, the pap players are inducted into a club for the purpose of strengthening the case for visa for the entire team which has "fake" players. In the recent past, kabaddi, wrestling, basketball and hockey have been the common sports used for off-loading kabootars in foreign lands.

A top sports official in Punjab has been reportedly identified as the kingpin of the operations to drop fake wrestlers abroad as part of an officially sponsored team. A former kabaddi player-turned- police official is known to have raked in lakhs of rupees by exporting foreign-seekers in the garb of players.

"It is a more-you-dig-the-more-you- find type of racket in Punjab," says a senior state sports official. But given the fact that a powerful lobby of police and sports officials has a major stake in the racket, it continues to be under wraps.

Sports has become the best way to beat the system now in place. "The sporting route is an expensive deal but ensures safe landing," says Deputy Inspector- General of Police (Jalandhar range) Dinkar Gupta. The reasons why sports has emerged as the most common factor in this business is because post-September 11, immigration rules have been tightened by western governments. Heightened rules of surveillance have choked the favoured immigration routes used for the smuggling in human cargo.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Punjab has seen a mushrooming of sports clubs and "international" tournaments. Much of this sporting surge is not to produce champions but to groom players and prepare the documentation to seek foreign visas under the garb of sports tournaments abroad.

In Phagwara, for instance, an akhara recruits and trains the aspirants as wrestlers. The most sought-after countries are the US, the UK and Canada. The price tag for migration through this scam is between Rs 7 lakh and 12 lakh. Some survive, some don't.

In Jalandhar, the capital of the smuggling racket, the nexus between sports organisers, police officials and travel agents runs deep. When the travel agents hook the foreign aspirants and strike the deal, the police and sports authorities facilitate their trips abroad. "It is a no-risk-high-profit business," says a senior police official. A leading travel agent has been allegedly running a human smuggling racket in connivance with a former top official of the Punjab police who had been a sports administrator at the pap. A karate coach in Jalandhar has been known to belt out "black belts" to foreign-crazy youths at a huge price only to buttress their visa applications for overseas tours.

Many a ruse is employed with alleged government help to establish the credentials of a club before applying for visa to the US, Canada or European countries. For example, Ravi Sharma, the owner of the dubious Lynex Club of India, which sponsored the controversial women's cricket team to England, had taken the same team to Sri Lanka four months ago with ease.

The trick worked in his case as the British High Commission granted a three-week visa to his 13-member team. The girls had paid Sharma Rs 2 lakh each for facilitating their entry into Britain. Of the missing five-Mandeep Virk, 19, Rajwant Kaur, 24, Baljeet Kour, 22, Parvesh Rani, 25, and Ekta Andotra, 21-Rajwant and Parvesh returned under pressure from relatives. "Their disappearance was pre-planned," says Sharma, while denying having struck a "money-for-migration" deal. The girls' parents, far from being anxious about their daughters melting away in London, insist that Sharma had assured them a six-month visa but produced only a three-week one.

A sports-goods dealer until a few years ago, Sharma allegedly became one of the numerous fly-by-night sports promoters who make fast bucks through human smuggling in the garb of conducting teams abroad. Last year, the Kapurthala Police booked Sunny Gill and Loveleen, son-in-law and daughter of wrestler-turned-film star Dara Singh for allegedly duping 78 youths of Rs 3 crore that they had collected from them promising a passage to Canada as members of a wrestling team. But Canada-resident Gill never provided them visas.

The desperation to reach greener pastures often touches bizarre levels. When the British High Commission held a cricket quiz before the cricket World Cup in South Africa in March, a youth from Faridabad won the contest and was granted a gratis visa along with one for a companion for a free trip to Britain. He chose to take a friend along instead of his newly wed wife. They too wanted to try their luck abroad. The two never returned-a fact that came to light only when the winner's wife made queries about her missing husband. Clearly, not all aspirants of luxury in the West are equal in their luck.