Rasheed made allegations against several MPs and MLAs and former ministers across political parties. The police, however, refused to disclose their names.
HYDERABAD: Mohammed Mazharuddin Ali alias Rasheed, suspected kingpin of the human trafficking racket, on Friday revealed that several MLAs and MPs from Andhra Pradesh and three MPs from Uttar Pradesh were involved in illegally sending people abroad.
Police released a confessional statement made by Rasheed late on Friday. But Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said the names of some of the politicians implicated by Rasheed would be revealed only if their involvement in the case is proved.
Police also recovered the passports of four AP legislators from Rasheed’s house in the city. The passports, they said, were to be used to illegally send some Gujaratis abroad.
Rasheed, who surrendered before the crime branch on Thursday, is likely to turn approver, the police said. Rasheed was produced before the Nampally criminal court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody till May 18.
Rasheed said in his confessional statement that those who sought his services in Delhi between 2003-2004 included UP parliamentarians Sundarlal Yadav, Balchand Yadav and Mohammed Tahir Khan.
He also claimed to have paid Rs20 lakh to the MPs through K Ramanamurthy, secretary of suspended Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP A Narendra, for visas and passports.
Rasheed said he was introduced to Telugu Desam Party MP Suguna Kumari and minister Nimmala Kistappa by TDP leader K Prakash Reddy in 2003. He said they took money for providing recommendation letters and their passports. "The visa applications were rejected in their case. But they refused to return the advance," he told police.
Incidentally, Rasheed had been arrested from his Saidabad residence on July 21, 2003, when police seized nearly 25 passports and related documents.
But he escaped conviction as police could not prove the charges against him. Rasheed said he himself was a victim of a fake visa racket run by one Shakeel. He was deported back to India in 2002 as his visas for Dubai and Holland were fake.
Instead of refunding the advance, Shakeel inducted Rasheed into the racket.
Rasheed said Ramakanth, a TDP MLA from Nizamabad, was the first politician he used to obtain a fake visa and passport to send a Gujarati woman abroad.
It was around this time that he was introduced to Narendra, who was then with the BJP, by one Munirbhai. Narendra allegedly gave him his original passport and three recommendation letters.
Rasheed told the media outside the Nampally criminal court that he had also paid Rs11 lakh to Narendra for his services.
Narendra denied the allegations at a hurriedly called press conference.
Rasheed is also said to have named former TDP minister C Krishna Yadav, who has already served a jail term for his involvement in the Telgi fake stamp paper scandal.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy convened a high-meeting meeting with Home Minister K Jana Reddy, DGP MA Basith, and intelligence chief K Aravinda Rao on Friday.
He directed them not to question or arrest any MLA or MP without proof of their involvement.
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