New Delhi: UP Police's Crime Branch busted a massive human-trafficking racket in the city's Maidan Garhi area and rescued 19 women - 16 of whom are from Nepal.

It is suspected that the women were brought to Delhi on the pretext of giving them jobs but were to be sent to middle-east countries as part of a human-trafficking syndicate. As many as 68 Indian and Nepali passports were also found here.

Acting on a tip-off, cops from Varanasi had camped in the capital for almost a week. On Monday night, a team from the crime branch joined members of Delhi Police's Special Cell and raided a flat where the women were suspected to be kept hidden. Three men - Pavan Khurana from Hisar, Kathmandu's Shahvin Shah and Ghazipur's Rajendra aka Rajan - were arrested on charges of being involved in the crime.

According to police officials, the gang had been operating in Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and in several parts of UP for close to five years and may have already sent 1000 girls to middle-east countries as part of the racket. The operated by keeping the girls in three different rooms in the same flat before sending them to Arab countries in batches. Once a batch was sent, girls from different parts of the country as well as from Nepal were brought in as part of the new batch.

Cops suspect more people to be involved and are probing to bring the guilty to the book.