Date:04/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/04/stories/2007050404260600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Passport scam: another TRS legislator booked

Staff Reporter

His name figured in the alleged human smuggling racket

HYDERABAD: The city police on Thursday booked a case against Telangana Rashtra Samiti legislator Soyam Babu Rao under the Passport Act for allegedly obtaining passports with fake identity and abetting human-trafficking.

A suo motu case was registered against the TRS MLA from Boath Assembly constituency after the Adilabad police submitted a detailed report to the Hyderabad police. He has not yet been arrested.

After his name figured in media reports about the fake passport racket, the legislator went into hiding and has surfaced in Adilabad district on Wednesday.Rao reportedly secured four passports for a Gujarati woman and three children in the name of his wife Bharathi , two sons — — and daughter .

His name figured in the alleged human smuggling racket after travel agent Rasheed who arranged visas and air tickets for the arrested BJP MP Babubhai Katara, disclosed that he had also helped TRS leaders secure passports to send people abroad with fake identity. Babu Rao, a rebel TRS MLA, is the second legislator to have been booked by the police in human trafficking racket. Nerella MLA Kasipeta Lingaiah was also arrested on a similar charge. He had obtained a passport for an unidentified Gujarati woman in the name of his wife Tara.

City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh told reporters here, that Rao was charged under Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document) 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and Section 12 (1) (B) of the Indian Passport Act.