Hyderabad, May 5
More skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboards of scores of politicians in Andhra Pradesh following the confessional statement given by Abdul Rasheed, the alleged kingpin in the human trafficking case.
According to police sources, Rasheed said he had paid Rs 11 lakh to A. Narendra, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP, who had recently been suspended from the party, for helping the illegal emigration of a Yousuf to the US.
On another occasion in 2005, Narendra handed over the passports of two TRS MPs Ravindra Naik (Warangal) and Madhusudan Reddy (Adilabad) for illegal trafficking, for which Rs 20 lakh was to be paid. Narendra also gave some letterheads of both the MPs. However, visas cold not be obtained on these passports.
Rasheed alleged that he developed links with Samajwadi MP from Uttar Pradesh Balchand Yadav through Narendra’s personal assistant Rammurthy, who took an advance of Rs 3 lakh for sending a woman and two children abroad. However, the MP later took back his passport, saying that he was neck deep in some problems.
Another MP from UP, Taher Khan (BSP), who was introduced to Rasheed by Yadav, accepted Rs 18 lakh for sponsoring a family’s illegal emigration.
Rasheed, however, said he was not aware of the people who were sent abroad on the Khan’s passport, as he handed over the same to Shakeel for Rs 22 lakh.
Another TRS MP Madhusudan Reddy, introduced to Rasheed by TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s assistant Ajit Reddy, was willing to send some people abroad on his passport and recommendation letter. But, the deal did not come through as Reddy demanded Rs 5 lakh as advance.
Former TDP MLA Ramakanth from Nizamabad made a lot of money through illegal human trafficking, and it was his example that another accused in the case Shakeel, who hails from the same district, cited to include Rasheed into the scam, the former hotelier, who surrendered before the police on Thursday, said.
Rasheed told the police that he paid money to Shakeel to emigrate to the US but could not make it. When he demanded the money back, Shakeel offered to make him a partner in human trafficking and asked to approach MPs and MLAs to get their recommendations.
Former TDP MP from Peddapalli (Karimnagar district) Suguna Kumari had agreed in 2003 to send 8 Gujaratis illegally to the US on her passport and even took Rs 1 lakh as advance. However, the visas were rejected even though she personally accompanied the visa-seekers to the US consulate in Chennai. She refused to return the advance, Rasheed revealed.
On the dealings with K. Lingaiah, who was the first person in AP to be booked in the sensational scam, Rasheed said the TRS MLA accompanied him to post office to collect the passport that had a forged picture of a woman Tara, identified as his wife. “Lingaiah also took Rs 1 lakh as advance, but unfortunately the operation failed and she could not secure the visa,” Rasheed said.
Curiously, the city task force police raided the residence of Rasheed in 2003 and confiscated around 25 passports, including those of Narendra and Suguna Kamari. Rasheed was arrested in the case and was released on bail in July the same year.
It was because of this raid that another deal he had struck with former TDP minister N. Kistappa failed to materialise. Kistappa agreed to use his passport for sending four Gujaratis to the US for a consideration of Rs 20 lakh. The operation had to be aborted following Rashid’s arrest.
Interestingly, Rasheed did not mention the name of Babubhai Katara, the Gujarat MP, who was the first person to be caught red-handed in the scam. It was during this episode that Rasheed’s name first figured in the racket.
Meanwhile, the city police has begun investigation to check the veracity of Rasheed’s confession by writing to the American consulate at Chennai for the recommendation letters sent to them by the MPs and MLAs from the state. Once they get hold of these letters, the cops would compare whether the persons recommended by them are genuine family members or not.
The opposition TDP and the TRS, meanwhile, demanded a thorough probe into the human trafficking scam. Both parties accused the Congress government of leaking select information to defame their party men, while ensuring that the names from the ruling party did not surface.
