Andhracafe.com- HYDERABAD : Human trafficking rackets had used beauticians to alter their client’s looks so that they more or less resembled the photographs affixed in original passports. Several clients were ‘touched up’ by beauticians before they appeared for interviews in consulates of various countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Arrested travel agent Rasheed told interrogators that racketeers usually picked passports which matched the facial features of those who wanted to be smuggled out. “Once this was ensured, we send them to a beautician for finishing touches,” he told the police. “Later they attended interviews at the consulates. Mostly, we used Mumbai-based beauticians.”

He disclosed that sometimes the racketeers used to ‘purchase’ passports of lookalikes. But in most cases, the clients managed quite well with the help of beauticians. The racketeers also occasionally made use of beauticians in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. 

They were paid Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. Meanwhile, sleuths of the city central crime station produced Rasheed before the XII Additional Chief Metropolitan Court on Tuesday and the judge directed that he be sent to judicial remand till May 18.

The court rejected the bail petition of TRS MLA Lingaiah and Rasheed and granted conditional bail to Muzaffer Ali Khan, former TD corporator. Police informed the court that they had seized eight passports, a computer hard disc, telephone dairy and photographs and ration cards of Jagdish Patel and Sangeetha Ben Patel from Rasheed.