Sex racket:HC seeks reply of cops on bail plea of Sanyal

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today soughtresponse of police on the bail plea of a 62-year-old man, whowas arrested for allegedly running a high-profile sex rackethere and trafficking of women from Central Asian countries. Justice P S Teji directed Delhi Police to file a statusreport by September 14 explaining the stage of investigationinto the arrest of Pritindra Nath Sanyal, who has been held onalleged charges of trafficking. Sanyal has moved the high court challenging the trialcourt’s July 30 order dismissing his bail plea, saying theallegations against him were very serious in nature. A case was registered against Sanyal at the SafdarjungEnclave Police Station in South Delhi on July 20. Police said Sanyal was arrested after documentsindicating his involvement in the illegal activity were foundduring raids at his residences by Income Tax authorities. During investigation, it was found that Sanyal had sentmessages to government servants and other senior functionariesposing as various MPs and top bureaucrats for getting favoursin certain business deals, the cops had said. Police have also recovered photographs and other materialshowing Sanyal’s alleged accomplice retired Colonel AjayAhlawat, who was granted bail by high court on July 11, withtwo Indian cricketers. The matter came to the fore after Sanyal’s residences inSafdarjung Enclave and Vasant Kunj here and also in Lucknowwere raided by Income Tax authorities in June. Documentary evidence in the form of WhatsApp messages andSMSes were seized from his Safdarjung Enclave residence, fromwhere the IT officials had also rescued a 23-year-old Russianwoman. Police had claimed that the SMSes and WhatsApp data ofthe woman’s mobile phone indicated that she was being keptagainst her will. Her travel documents including passport wereallegedly taken away by the accused, it had alleged. The IT raid had also led to recovery of copies ofpassports of other foreign nationals as well as phone numbersof dozens of women belonging to Central Asian countries fromthe accused’s residence. Messages exchanged between Sanyal and his associates hadrevealed financial transactions related to foreign women. PTIPPS ABAARC