Human trafficking scam kingpin spills the beans

Mohammed Rasheed Ali, the alleged kingpin in the passport scam, has named several MPs and MLAs belonging to different parties whom he had tried to involve in the human trafficking racket over the last five years.

The 46-year-old Rasheed also claimed that he worked for different travel agents who were allegedly sending Gujarati persons in the names of family members of MPs/MLAs and other prominent persons.

Rasheed Ali recorded his 'voluntary' confessional statement before the investigating officers of Central Crime Station of Hyderabad City police soon after his surrender on May 3 at the Police Control Room.

He told the CCS officials how he stumbled into 'human trafficking business' after his two visits abroad to get jobs. After he incurred heavy losses in hotel business in 1991, he went to Saudi Arabia in October 1992 and stayed there for 14 days. As he could not do work of farm house maintenance in an interior village there, he returned to India.

PTI adds:

The interrogation of Rasheed, a city-based travel agent and alleged kingpin in the human trafficking case, has opened a can of worms as names of several politicians are understood to have tumbled out during the grilling.

"He has made allegations against several parliamentarians, legislators and former ministers across political parties. We cannot disclose their names at this juncture. We are verifying the records," police sources said in Hyderabad on Friday.

Rasheed, whose name had figured prominently during the investigations ever since the emigration scandal broke out, had surrendered before the police on Thursday. He is being interrogated by a team of Central Crime Station police.      

According to sources, Rasheed had named one Rajupitti, believed to be a bookie, as the key person in the racket. He admitted that Rajupitti had allegedly introduced to him the prospective clients who were in need of forged passports and travel documents to go abroad.

Rasheed, who had allegedly approached some MPs and MLAs with offers of huge bribe to use passports of their family members, will be produced before Nampally criminal court in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, the police conducted searches at his and his relatives residences in Hyderabad on Thursday night and recovered six passports and some other incriminating documents, they said.

"His revelations suggest the fake passport network is very wide and spread over several states. We are now concentrating on cross-checking the information that he is giving," the sources said.

Rasheed, a resident of Malakpet area, who went into hiding ever since the scandal allegedly involving suspended Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Babubhai Katara came to light, had on Thursday claimed that he was facing a threat to his life from some politicians.

His name had cropped up during the investigations into the Katara case and later in cases involving procuring fake passports for some Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders.

TRS legislator K Lingaiah is already in police custody for his alleged role in the scam while police booked a case against another legislator from the regional party S Bapurao. 

Based on information provided by Rasheed, the police took into custody a former Telugu Desam Party Corporator Muzaffar Ali and was interrogating him.

The police also recovered from Muzaffar the Photostat copies of passports and other documents pertaining to family members of rebel TRS legislators Lingaiah and Bapurao.

Rasheed was understood to have told the interrogators that he and another person, identified as Shakeel, had worked for Rajupitti and their brief was to forge passports and travel documents to facilitate sending people abroad through illegal route.

During the raids conducted at Rasheed's house at Malakpet here, the police recovered letterheads of some MPs and MLAs, the sources said.

Meanwhile, police sources said a team of Delhi Police was likely to come here to interrogate Rasheed since his name figured in the Babubhai Katara case.

Sources said Rajupitti, who has been named by Rasheed as the mastermind behind the racket, belongs to Gujarat and was said to be involved in cricket betting. Rasheed told police that he had fled the country soon after the Katara case came to light last month.