New Delhi: The Hyderabad Police have arrested one more person in connection with the human trafficking case.
The police arrested Prakash Reddy at an apartment located near the MLA quarters on Friday night. He is an aide of Rashid's - who is one of the main accused in the case.
The Delhi Police and the Hyderabad Police are working in collusion over the case.
The Delhi Police had earlier arrested Sunderlal - the owner of a small paan shop in Delhi - who they claim has been coordinating the human trafficking business since 1993. The police claim he was the conduit between the MP and travel agents.
Sunderlal was also the man who named four other MPs in connection with the case. The MPs were Mohammed Tahir Khan, Mitrasen Yadav and Ashok Rawat from the BSP and Ramswaroop Koli, from the BJP.
Rashid is a Hyderabadi travel agent and was introduced to Sunderlal by a Telangana Rashtra Samithi member.
Reddy, Rashid's aide, was arrested along with Rashid in connection with the fake passport case in 2003 and released on bail in the same year. He had close links with the officials and politicians and was also involved in real estate business in the city.
Two police teams have already left for Bangalore and New Delhi to nab the other twow aides of Rashid - Maksud and Khaled.
The Hyderabad Angle
The probe in Hyderabad started after Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA, Kasipeta Lingaiah was accused in the case.
Lingaiah surrendered in a Hyderabad court on Friday. The police put Lingaiah under investigation after anonymous letters and documents sent to media offices on Tuesday suggested the possibility of human trafficking during his travel to the US last month.
The Hyderabad city police had suo moto registered a criminal case against Lingaiah on Thursday in connection with the emigration racket.
A special police team, which visited Lingaiah's Karimnagar residence on Wednesday, found the house locked.
On Tuesday, someone anonymously dropped a set of documents in media offices that contained copies of passports procured by Lingaiah - MLA from Nerella constituency of Karimnagar district - and four other MLAs.
There were recommendation letters by the Chief Minister to the US consulate for issuing visas and even the photocopies of their ID cards. It also had a separate note alleging that three TRS MPs and five MLAs trafficked women.
The documents suggested that the person who gave this information was an insider. Hyderabad Police began their probe after media tried to verify the authenticity of these documents.
Says Hyderabad City Police Commissioner, Balwinder Singh, "Initially we were not in the picture, because Delhi police was investigating. We were giving them the necessary assistance. But now that media has given some documents in which certain allegations have been made against some important persons of Andhra Pradesh, we're verifying that."
The Andhra Pradesh government too has asked the State Police Department to dig out more details of this case.
Other Arrests
The Delhi Police have arrested one Rajinder, who is the personal assistant of BJP MP Babubhai Katara, the main accused in the case. Police named him the prime conspirator in the human smuggling racket.
While Katara would sit in the VIP lounge at the airport, Rajinder would allegedly get his travel documents cleared.
The crime branch of Delhi police also arrested Kiran Dhar, a beautician who helped with the make-up of the women traveling on the forged passports.
The police told the court that Rajinder was in direct contact with travel agents of Punjab who used to bring women to Delhi.
Comments
0 comment