Hyderabad: Police on Thursday arrested two brothers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for buying a woman from Hyderabad for slavery.
The brothers — Salim Obaid Saeed Shamlan Alzaabi, 52, and his brother, Obaid Sayeed Shamlan Alazaabi, 48 — came to the city early this month from Dubai.
The police invoked various sections of the Indian Penal Code: Section 370 pertaining to buying or disposing of any person as a slave, which attracts a punishment of seven years imprisonment; Section 493 - Cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage and to cohabit or have sexual intercourse with her, for which the punishment is 10 years imprisonment; Section 420 - Cheating and dishonestly receiving property; Section 109 - Punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment, and Section 511 - Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment
Deputy commissioner of police, Shamshabad, P. V. Padmaja, said that Salim Obaid came to the city on August 10 and was helped by a broker, Mohammed Shafi, to select a 30-year-old woman from Mailardevpally for the marriage. The nikaah was solemnised by Qazi Mohammed Habeeb Ali of Pahadishareef on August 17.
“Salim Obaid paid Rs 70,000 to the broker who in turn paid Rs 40,000 to the family of the woman. They made the parents of the victim believe that their daughter will lead a happy life. They did not disclose to the victim their ill-intentions of sexually exploiting her before divorcing her,” said the DCP. The signatures of the woman and her parents were obtained on a bond paper and they were told that the documents had been sent to Mumbai to obtain a marriage certificate from the UAE embassy.
Inspector P. Jagadee-shwar of the Mailar-devpally police said that the two Dubai nationals had been charged under Section 420 for (cheating).
The passports of the two brothers showed they had visited India several times in the past few years. "We are probing why they had come to India previously. Several photographs of women and girls were found in the mobile phone of the broker," Ms Padmaja said. The police also arrested Qazi Habeeb and the broker, Shafi.
