Hyderabad, May 10 (IANS) A Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) legislator in Andhra Pradesh surrendered Thursday in connection with the human trafficking scam, the second member of the party to do so.
Soyam Bapu Rao, a rebel TRS legislator, reached the Central Crime Station of Hyderabad police Thursday morning and surrendered himself. Police took him into custody and are likely to produce him in a court later in the day.
Hyderabad police had last week registered a criminal case against him on charges of securing passports for others in the name of his wife and two children.
Rao, who had gone underground after his name cropped up during investigations, represents Boath constituency in Adilabad district.
He is the second rebel legislator of TRS to surrender in this case. Kasipeta Lingaiah of Karimnagar district had surrendered to police on April 27. Lingaiah is also charged with obtaining a passport for another woman in the name of his wife.
Mohammed Rasheed Ali, a travel agent and key accused in the case, had surrendered to police on May 3. A leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and former corporator Muzaffer Ali Khan was arrested the same day.
Rasheed named Rajupitti, a bookie, and Mohammed Shakeel, a TDP leader, as the kingpins of the racket. Both are absconding. Police are also probing allegations made by Rasheed against some leaders of TRS and TDP.
The scam unearthed in New Delhi last month when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara was caught at the airport while trying to smuggle out a woman and a teenage boy to Toronto on the passports of his family.