NEW DELHI: Babubhai Katara, Member of Parliament representing Dahod in Gujarat, was arrested at Delhi airport on Wednesday after he allegedly tried to take a woman and her son to Canada using the passports of his wife Shardaben and son Rajesh.

Police suspect that the MP, a member of the BJP, was involved in human trafficking and that Katara’s aide had struck a deal with an ‘agent’ for Rs30 lakh, of which Rs15 lakh had been paid. Katara, 46, has been suspended from his party.

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The MP and his companions — Paramjeet Kaur and her son Amarjeet — were detained by police when they were about to board an Air-India flight to Toronto early on Wednesday.

The fraud was detected by airline staff, who noticed that the photographs in the passports did not bear a likeness to the passengers. They informed immigration officials, who detained the trio. They were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to cheating and criminal conspiracy.

Katara’s arrest has come as a major embarrassment for the BJP. Party leaders went into a huddle in the afternoon, as soon as news of his arrest broke. There was a sense of shock and disgust.

“The BJP has taken a grim view of it and once facts are checked, we will take strict and exemplary action,” party spokesman Prakash Javdekar said.

With inputs from Agencies