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Wednesday, Jun 29, 2011
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National

Marriage racket in Hyderabad busted

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: After old Arab Sheiks, it is the turn of young Sudan nationals to exploit poor Muslim women from the city in the name of marriage. Police on Tuesday busted a contract marriage racket in old city involving Qazis performing marriages with fabricated documents, pimps fixing alliances and foreigners purchasing brides for sexual exploitation. Among the six persons arrested by the police were two Sudanese, one of whom married a teenager allegedly by paying Rs. 60,000 to two pimps and made the bride sign blank bond papers apparently to use them for filing divorce before leaving for his country.

“While the Sudan national Mohammed Ansari sexually assaulted the teenager after performing the Nikah, his friend Khaled Elrashid, also from Sudan, molested her during a visit to their house,” the South Zone DCP, Vineet Brijlal, said at a press conference. At least seven more such incidents were reported in old city in recent past suggesting operation of a contract marriage racket exploiting poor Muslim women, he said.

However, no specific complaints were lodged in these cases, the DCP said. He appealed to people to approach police fearlessly so that tough action was initiated against erring Qazis, and pimps ruining lives of innocent women. In the present case, a teenager from Kishan Prasad Devidi of Bela colony approached the Moghalpura police alleging that she was married to Ansari without her consent.

The two Qazis, Syed Shakeel Uddin,25, and Syed Abdul Malik, 45, according to her, prepared false documents showing her age as 18 years while she was 16 years old. The bridegroom got her signed on blank bond papers on the marriage day itself, she told the police. Subsequent police investigation revealed that two pimps, Zahera Begum, 40, and Ghousia Begum, 45, used to identify minor girls from poor families of old city.

They would bring the girls and their parents to the Qazis, lure the latter with money and introduce them to members of community of Sudanese who had come to city on student visas. “These Sudanese apparently have no intention to live with the women for lifel and apparently want to sexually exploit them during their stay here,” the DCP said. Securing blank bond papers with the signatures of the teenagers shows their ‘mens rea', he said. Passports of the two Sudanese, who were arrested along with the two Qazis and the two pimps, were seized.

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