India | Updated Jun 19, 2007 at 12:27pm IST

Fake passport: TDP for CBI probe

New Delhi: In the fake passport scam, Hyderabad Police are to file a fresh petition before a criminal court seeking a 10-day custody of key accused Rashid Ali.

Rashid, who surrendered before the police on May 3, was remanded in judicial custody till the May 18.

Delhi Police is likely to approach the court on Monday seeking Rashid's custody in the Babubhai Katara case.

Meanwhile, another dissident, TRS legislator Soyam Bapu Rao, who was recently booked in a case of human trafficking, is likely to surrender before the court. The legislator has been absconding for the last one week.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), whose leaders have also figured in the scam, have demanded a CBI inquiry.

Says TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu, "We want them to take immediate action with sincerity. The guilty should be punished and the issue should not be politicised for whatever reasons."

Rashid is said to be the brains behind the entire scam, the kingpin of the human trafficking scandal that's claimed MPs from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh.

Rashid Ali - a travel agent who is allegedly the key player in the fake passport scam - had gone missing when BJP MP Babubhai Katara was arrested on April 18. But he resurfaced on Thursday and surrendered before the Hyderabad Police, claiming he was innocent.

"I have no connection with the Katara case. I received threatening calls, so I surrendered. I will say the same thing in court. The police will help me out," he had said earlier.

Rashid's name had come up during interrogation into the Babubhai Katara case. Sources say Rashid had been sheltered until now by a sitting BJP MLA.

From there he reportedly sent the media documents detailing the involvement of five MLAs and three MPs in the fake passport racket, which led to the arrest of two MLAs from Andhra Pradesh.

But sources also say Rashid was only an assistant to a man named Shakil, a native of Bodhan in Nizamabad. Shakil contested a seat in the State Legislative council recently as an independent candidate, and lost narrowly, by only 11 votes.

He later fled to London when the racket was exposed. The Hyderabad Police have summoned Muzaffar Ali Khan, an ex-corporator of the TDP, for questioning. Rashid is believed to have made three calls to Muzaffar Ali Khan after he went missing.

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