— Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

GIVES HIMSELF UP: Kasipeta Lingaiah, MLA of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, coming out of a court in Hyderabad on Friday after surrendering in the emigration racket case.

HYDERABAD : Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA Kasipeta Lingaiah, whom police were looking for in an emigration racket, surrendered before a court here on Friday. He was remanded to judicial custody till May 11.

Mr. Lingaiah went underground in the wake of reports accusing him of securing a passport for a woman in his wife's name.

``A ploy''

He described the whole affair as a ploy by TRS president K. Chandrashekhara Rao to implicate and embarrass all nine dissident MLAs, including him.

He maintained that many bigwigs were involved and urged the Government to investigate the role of some IAS and IPS officers and senior journalists in "smuggling" people abroad. "All media reports linking me to the passport fraud case are baseless," he told reporters outside the court hall.

Mr. Lingiah said that though he was a legislator, he had to go to the office of the Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad, Bala Bhaskar, several times for securing a passport for his family members but to no avail.

Finally, out of desperation, he said, he gave the documents to a travel agent Rasheed, who was introduced to him by a friend, Dileep, to get the work done. The latter is said to be an aide of the former Union Minister, A. Narendra, who was suspended from the TRS here on Thursday, after the emigration racket was unearthed.

"I learnt that Rasheed manages to get passports within 20 days. Let police arrest him and he will explain what he did with those papers," he said.

Responding to the charge that he placed another woman's photo in the passport application, he pleaded innocence, saying morphing had become common and photos could be replaced.

Police invoked Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code and section 12 (1) (6) of Passport Act against Mr. Lingaiah and the unidentified woman.

While the police filed a petition seeking the MLA's custody, his advocate moved a bail petition, which was posted for Monday.

Mr. Lingaiah walked into the court of the Eighth Chief Additional Metropolitan Magistrate along with his lawyer. His counsel represented to the court that Mr. Lingaiah was implicated in a false case and police were threatening his family members to know about his whereabouts.

Police stated in the First Information Report that Mr. Lingaiah introduced a 40-year-old woman as his wife to Special Branch constable Digamber Singh, who went to his house for verification of details.

Initially, the MLA refused to give photocopies of his marriage affidavit and passport but relented on the constable's insistence.

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