By IANS
Hyderabad : Travel agent Rasheed, accused of smuggling Indians abroad in a scam that allegedly involves several MPs and Andhra Pradesh politicians, has been remanded in judicial custody till May 18.
Rasheed, whose real name is Mohammed Mazharuddin Ali and who surrendered Thursday, and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and former corporator Muzaffer Ali Khan were produced before Nampally Metropolitan Court. Khan was also remanded in judicial custody for two weeks.
They were shifted to Chanchalguda central jail here.
Police had arrested Khan late Thursday for providing financial help and shelter to Rasheed.
Rasheed had earlier told the police that several top politicians in Andhra Pradesh were involved in the racket, police sources said.
He named Hyderabad-based cricket bookie Rajupitti as the kingpin of the flourishing scam, the sources said.
Rasheed reportedly said that Rajupitti alias American Raju fled the country after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara was arrested April 18 in New Delhi just before boarding a flight to Canada with a woman and a teenaged boy. The woman and the boy were travelling on the diplomatic passports of the MP’s wife and son.
Investigations sparked off by Katara’s arrest have led Delhi Police to separately allege that at least four more MPs were involved in human smuggling.
A team of Delhi Police is expected to reach here later in the day to seek custody of Rasheed. Three people arrested in Delhi after Katara’s arrest had alleged that Rasheed played a key role in the scandal.
According to the Hyderabad Police sources, Rasheed has implicated Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader A. Narendra, who has since been suspended from the party, TRS MPs Madhusudhan Reddy and Ravindra Naik, TRS legislators Kasipeta Lingaiah, S. Baburao and S. Ramalinga Reddy, TDP leader Mohammed Shakeel alias Shameem, former TDP MPs Suguna Kumari, Lal Jaan Pasha, former TDP legislators Srinivas Yadav, Nimmala Kishtappa and Krishna Yadav besides Ajit Reddy, a personal assistant of TRS president K. Chandrasekhara Rao.
Narendra has repeatedly denied the charges flung at him and instead accused Chandrasekhara Rao of involvement in the smuggling of people who paid large sums of money to travel on diplomatic passports provided to politicians.
“This is a conspiracy by Chandrasekhara Rao to falsely implicate me,” said Narendra.
Similarly, most others named by Rasheed have also denied the allegations made against them. TRS legislator Lingaiah is in custody for obtaining a passport for a woman masquerading as his wife, and Baburao is still at large.
Rasheed allegedly told police that American Raju used to send people abroad for a charge of Rs.500,000 each. He described TDP leader Shakeel as a key player, adding the man used to send women from Gujarat to the US.
Police sources said Rasheed claimed to have paid Rs.1.1 million to a TRS leader for sending five Gujarati women to the US. He said the same politician also got Rs.4.5 million from another man.
Rasheed also claimed to have paid Rs.200,000 to a former TDP MP to send people abroad.
TRS MPs Madhusudhan Reddy and Ravindra Naik had earlier claimed that their passports were misused when they were in Narendra’s possession.
During searches at Rasheed’s house, police seized six passports, including those belonging to a couple of legislators.