Three more Omanis arrested in Hyderabad marriage racket

Hyderabad, Sep 26 (IANS) Continuing its crackdown on aged Arab nationals marrying minor girls, Hyderabad police on Tuesday arrested three more Omani citizens and two qazis.

As part of the investigations into the racket busted last week, police conducted searches at various places and made the arrests.

Ali Abdullah Rafi, one of the chief qazis of Hyderabad who was absconding, was arrested in the old city and based on the information provided by him three Omani nationals who were in the city to marry minor girls were taken into custody. An assistant qazi was also arrested.

Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana told reporters that the police have also initiated proceedings to deport two Qatari nationals.

One of them was identified as 75-year-old Baloshi Abdullah Mubarak Abdullah, a blind man who has a pacemaker and is undergoing dialysis thrice a week. The police official claimed that he married 10 times and was in the city for the 11th marriage.

However, since no evidence was found against him and since he is a chronic patient, authorities contacted the Oman embassy for his deportation. Another Omani national Qamees Mohammed will also be deported.

Last week, the police claimed to have busted a huge racket with the arrest of 20 people including five Omani and three Qatari nationals.

The police official said steroids and medicines to boost sexual potency were recovered from one of those arrested.

Three qazis were arrested last week including chief qazi of Mumbai Farid Ahmed Khan, who is the kingpin of the racket. He had allegedly performed 40 marriages of minor girls with old Arab sheikhs by preparing forged documents.

The DCP said the racket of contract marriages and international trafficking of minor girls was not confined to Hyderabad but spread to Mumbai, parts of Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal.

Police have taken custody of Farid, another qazi and two Qatari brokers and will grill them to gather more information about the racket.

"We are trying to reach to the roots of this racket. There will be zero tolerance for this kind of activities," he said and exuded confidence of rooting out the menace in two months.

Stating that 99 per cent of the people from the Gulf countries who visit Hyderabad come for tourism, medical treatment, business and education, he said there were a few who in collusion with brokers based in India and abroad and with a few qazis were resorting to illegal activity.

The DCP said a list of such people will be prepared and submitted to the countries concerned for suitable action against them.

Satyanarayana said they had so far identified 35 victims including 22 minors. Some of them were married for 15 to 30 days under what is called contract marriage. Some victims were taken to Arab countries on domestic servant visas.

The official said in most of the cases 50-70 year olds married 15-17 year old girls.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)