HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA from Boath constituency in Adilabad district, Soyam Bapu Rao, will surrender before a court here in a day or two, it is learnt.

Mr. Rao went underground after the city police registered a criminal case against him five days ago on the charge of securing passports for others in the name of his wife and two children. He reportedly contacted his friends in Hyderabad to arrange an advocate even as the Hyderabad Detective Department officials sent special teams to nab him.

Police sources said the MLA sent feelers to the police as well expressing his readiness to surrender but did not contact them again. Meanwhile, the police produced Rasheed, the alleged kingpin in the racket of smuggling people abroad and his associate Muzaffar Khan, who were arrested recently, to the court stating that the duo helped Mr. Rao secure passports with fake identities.

Rasheed and Khan were remanded in judicial custody till May 18. The duo was also charged with helping another TRS legislator Kasipeta Lingaiah secure a passport for an unidentified woman in his wife's name. The police filed a petition seeking their custody for further interrogation. It would come up for hearing on Thursday.

In the First Information Report, police stated that a head constable of Special Branch M.A. Basith went to the legislator's quarter at Adarshangar on April 15 to verify details of his family members with regard to passport application. Mr. Rao called a woman and introduced her as his wife to the constable.

Five days later, the constable again went to the quarter. At that time, three children were in the house. The MLA's personal assistant Shankar introduced them as Mr. Rao's children. The city police, with the help of their counterparts in Adilabad district, started an inquiry following media reports linking the MLA to the passport fraud. The inquiry confirmed that the photos on the passport applications were different from those of his family members.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail