Six cars, property papers seized from trafficker couple

NEW DELHI: A week after the Delhi Police arrested a couple for allegedly running a sex-trafficking racket, the cops seized documents of 17 properties in Delhi, Bangalore

NEW DELHI: A week after the Delhi Police arrested a couple for allegedly running a sex-trafficking racket, the cops seized documents of 17 properties in Delhi, Bangalore and recovered six luxury cars that belonged to them.

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On Monday, the police recovered an Audi Q8 car that the couple bought last year besides two Toyota Fortuner, Innova, Safari and Honda City cars. The couple, Saira Begum and Afaq Hussian, has now been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA). The police said that the accused have been involved in the trade for the last 15 years and have trafficked around 5,000 women. The couple parked their cars at their different properties to ensure that they do not come under scanner.

Apart from the cars, the police also found out that the couple was running a 32-room guest house in Okhla since 2010. They owned six brothels on GB Road which have also been sealed.

Apart from the other farmhouse sin south-east Delhi’s Jaitpur and two flats in Bangalore, the couple owned three shops in Bhagwan Nagar.

The investigating officers said they have got details of only one bank account so far. In the joint account, they recovered around ` 3.6crore. However, the police suspect that the couple has around six accounts with crores in them. The officials have asked the bank to provide details of the account.

The crime branch has recovered a 30mm bore rifle, 12mm bore gun and 32mm bore pistol. The investigating officers were surprised when the couple presented the licences of the weapons. “They had got the licences from Jammu and Kashmir. We are verifying how did they manage to get them. It appears that they must have forged the details while applying for the licences,” said an officer.

The police said that the couple along with their agents trafficked women from different parts of the country and Nepal. To avoid detection, the two had stopped going to GB Road and had assigned the task of running the operations to their associates. The couple was earlier arrested in 2013 and their cases are awaiting trial. Saira Begum was first arrested in 1990 and served jail term of around five years before release.