Sex racket: Court extends police custody of arrested accused

A Delhi court today extended by three days the police custody of a 62-year-old man, who was arrested for allegedly running a high-profile sex racket here and trafficking of women from Central Asian countries.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Gupta extended the custody of Pritindra Nath Sanyal, who has been allegedly held on charges of trafficking, till July 26 after the police sought his remand for further investigation in the case.
Sanyal, against whom a case was registered at Safdarjung Enclave police station on Wednesday, was earlier sent to police custody for three days which expired today.
The police, while seeking extension of his custody, said more time was needed as probe into the case is still underway.

According to the police, Sanyal was arrested after documents indicating his involvement in the illegal activity were found during raids at his residences by Income Tax authorities.
Yesterday, the Delhi Police gave clean chit to two parliamentarians whose names surfaced during probe.

During investigation, it was found that Sanyal had sent messages to government servants and other senior functionaries posing as MPs and top bureaucrat for getting favours in certain business deals, the cops had said.
Police have also recovered photographs and other material showing Sanyal's alleged accomplice ColAjay Ahlawat (retd) with two Indian cricketers and investigation is going on.

Ahlawat has not been detained yet but he is being questioned by the police, DCP South had said.
The matter came to the fore after Sanyal's residences in Safdarjung Enclave and Vasant Kunj here and also in Lucknow were raided by Income Tax authorities in June.
Documentary evidence in the form of WhatsApp messages and SMSes were seized from his residence at Safdarjung Enclave.
The IT officials had rescued a Russian national, aged about 23 years, from his residence in Safdarjung Enclave. The SMSes and WhatsApp data of the woman's mobile phone indicated that she was being kept against her will... Her travel documents including passport were allegedly taken away by the accused.

The IT raid had also led to recovery of copies of passports of other foreign nationals as well as phone numbers of dozens of women belonging to Central Asian countries from the accused's residence.
Messages exchanged between accused Sanyal and his associates had revealed financial transactions related to foreign women.