A day after being questioned for his alleged role in the trafficking of two women and a man from Hyderabad to America 14 years ago, former MLA of Sangareddy T. Jayaprakash Reddy was arrested by Hyderabad police here on Tuesday.
Mr. Reddy was lodged in Chanchalguda Central Prison after being presented before a local magistrate who remanded him in judicial custody. Hyderabad Police Commissioner’s Task Force sleuths picked up him on Monday after a tip-off that “he played key role in trafficking a trio to America in 2004”.
They stumbled upon three passports, which were on the names of his wife T. Nirmala, daughter Jayalaxmi and son T. Bharath Sai Reddy, but had photographs of others. Eventually, he was handed over to the Market police who registered a criminal case under different sections of law.
“When Mr. Reddy was a MLA in 2004, he secured visas to America from Chennai American Consulate based on these passports having photos of others,” North Zone DCP B. Sumathi said. Those three persons believed to be from Gujarat State were introduced to Mr. Reddy through a broker Madhu.
Claiming them as his family members, Mr. Reddy flew to New York along with them and his friend Jetti Kusuma Kumar. After staying in New York for some days, he and Kumar flew back to Hyderabad. “For helping them to land in America, Mr. Reddy collected ₹15 lakh from them through Madhu,” the DCP said.
This was in addition to the expenditure incurred for travelling to and fro America. Hunt is on for Madhu and Kumar who reportedly aided and abetted the former MLA. Mr. Reddy changed the age of his daughter and son in the passport documents. For this, he allegedly used forged age certificates, the investigators said.
An active Bharatiya Janata Party worker in Sangareddy, Jagga Reddy started his political career as a councillor in the civic body.
He became Sangareddy MLA in 2004 on the ticket of Telangana Rashtra Samithi party which was spearheading the agitation for separate Telangana State at that time.
By next Assembly elections in 2009, he differed with TRS supremo K. Chandrasekhara Rao, joined the Congress party and again won the Assembly seat. However, he lost to TRS nominee in 2014 election.
Now a bitter critic of Mr. Rao, Jagga Reddy was fighting TRS tooth and nail on all matters.
“Mr. Rao and his son K. Taraka Rama Rao have conspired to put me behind the bars. They also helped people land in America. Why are no cases against them,” he said talking to media persons at Gandhi Hospital when taken there for formal medical check-up before being arrested.
