Flesh trade couple has houses, cars, school

After the international human trafficking was busted by the Crime Branch with the arrest of eight persons including the mastermind couple, it came to light that the couple who have trafficked more than 5,000 girls since 1999, has  reportedly around 12 properties in Delhi, three in Bangalore, a school in Jaitpur and six luxury cars. The couple used to earn around Rs 10 lakh per day, police said.

The couple identified as Afaq Hussain and Saira Begum also owns six kothas in GB Road (now Shraddhanand Marg). According to senior police officials in the Crime Branch, there are two to three operators, who have constituted their own teams of agents and they are running the nasty commercial business.

“In order to curb the ghastly activities of this syndicate of human trafficking and prostitution operating at GB Road, the Crime Branch has launched a massive action and has invoked provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against them for the first time ever,” Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) said.

“A team in raids at different parts of the city arrested Afaq Hussain, Saira Begum, Ramesh Pandey and Vasudev Pandey on August 25. In another raid, the kotha managers Pooja, Shamshad, Shilpa and Mumtaz were arrested on August 28. However, the main accused and muscleman of the racket Sarfaraz, alias Billi, is absconding,” Yadav added.

During the investigation, it came to light that Afaq, who hails from Moradabad, UP was a carpenter and while visiting GB Road, he came in contact with Saira Begum and the duo fell in love and got married. Afaq was a ticket aspirant for being an MLA of the Samajwadi party from his native place.

“The couple had three flats in Bangalore, a farmhouse in South-east Delhi’s Jaitpur, six kothas in GB road and they were planning to buy a property in South Delhi’s Defence Colony area for which they had given an advance payment of Rs 50 lakh. 

Also, it was learnt that the couple had sold off a property in Bangalore for Rs four crore. They had six luxury cars, four of which we have recovered in Delhi and two are in Bangalore. A school in Jaitpur named Iqra International school is also suspected to be owned by the couple,” another officer said.

It was also learnt that during the Nepal earthquake, a lot of Nepali women were trafficked to Delhi by Afaq’s driver Ramesh Pandey and chief manager Vasudev Pandey, both of whom are Nepali. They further sold them off to the kotha managers also known as the nayikas and musclemen in GB Road. 

“The young girls are thrashed, confined in hidden cells, intoxicated and kept starved for many days to force them into sex trade. The kotha operators recovered monthly 8-10 per cent of the amount as well as interest on it which was spent on buying them,” police said.