Hyderabad: With the arrest of more foreign nationals, investigation in international women trafficking racket is getting more intense. However, language barrier is holding back the inspection as Indian police is unable to communicate in Arabic with foreign nationals. There are no official interpreters for the city police and absence of translators is compounding the problem.
So far, eight Omani nationals and three Qatari nationals were caught for their alleged involvement in the racket. A few more will land in police net as the investigation progresses, police said.
Local Arabic scholars and a few others are helping out the investigation team in communicating with the Arabs.
“The foreigners, who are in our custody, are familiar with English to a certain extent. They are able to understand our questions but cannot reply,” said a police official associated with the investigation.
Meanwhile, the police found out that the brokers, who were caught for facilitating the marriages, are familiar with English, Telugu, Urdu and Arabic. “The brokers are well versed in Arabic. They easily communicate with the foreign nationals in Arabic and some can also write the language,” said the police official.
Initially, the police banked on the brokers to extract information from the foreigners. Later, they dropped it, fearing collusion between the foreign nationals and the brokers. “When it comes to documents, we can send them to the translation bureau. How-ever, we cannot rely on anyone when it comes to questioning the accused. So we are writing to the government to provide us interpretors. Most probably we will be getting academicians from universities,” said DCP, south, V. Satyanararyana.
To add on, another case of a local girl’s marriage with a foreign national going awry was reported at the Falaknuma police station.
According to the police, Asmat Begum of Vattepally in Falaknuma complained that her daughter, who was a minor, was allegedly sold to a Sudani national by her husband six years ago.
The woman said that her daughter, Sabera Begum, was sold by her husband, Shareef Khan, and his second wife to a Sudani national for `2 lakh in 2011. The Sudani married her and took her to Saudi Arabia.
“Sabera Begum has given birth to three children and lives in Sudan. Her husband, Abd El Khalig Mahgoub El Hussein is torturing her and she wants to return to India,” said P. Yadagiri, inspector, Falaknuma.
The police questioned Shareef Khan and is looking out for the qazi who solemnised the marriage.
In another development, the police got custody of chief qazi of Mumbai, Farid Khan.
“We suspect that he had solemnized several marriages of Hyderabad girls with foreign nationals. A team will be sent to Mumbai to collect evidence,” said the police.