Police to arrest ex-army man in escort service racket

The Delhi Police is likely to arrest retired army Colonel Ajay Ahlawat for his alleged role in trafficking and exploiting foreign women, as part of its probe into a high-profile escort service racket, sources said.

"We will arrest Ajay Ahlawat soon as we have got evidence against him," a senior police officer related to the probe told IANS.

"We have confirmed the documentary evidence against him," the officer said. "We had sent the evidence to several offices for confirmation."

The move against Ahlawat comes close on the heels of the arrest of P.N. Sanyal, 62, on July 19 from his flat in south Delhi's Safdarjung Enclave for trafficking and exploiting foreign nationals. The I-T Department had forwarded the complaint against Sanyal to the Delhi Police.

Ahlawat was named by a 23-year-old trafficked Central Asian woman who was found by the I-T Department officials in Sanyal's house during the raid on June 2.

In her statement to the I-T Department, the woman said she doesn't want to live there and felt insecure.

The woman had tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists in front of the I-T department officers.

According to sources, Sanyal and Ahlawat had trafficked over 50 foreign women and used them as honey traps to get their deals finalised from government officials.

Ahlawat runs a chain of resorts in Rajasthan and Haryana.

A source revealed that both of them mainly targetted land deals and earned huge profits.

Asked if Sanyal used foreign women as honey traps for I-T Department officials to blackmail them, a senior officer related to the probe remained tight-lipped.

Asked about the role of Sanyal, the officer said, "We are probing into the previous life of Sanyal to find out more details."

--IANS

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