Days after Afaq Hussain and his wife Saira Begum were arrested for running a human trafficking and prostitution racket in the red light area of GB Road in Central Delhi, police officials on Tuesday said Afaq held political aspiration and over years he earned a reputation of “Robin Hood” among the people of Moradabad.

A native of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Afaq had come to Delhi and worked as a carpenter and amassed huge wealth from illegal activities, said police, adding that the couple used to earn around Rs 10 lakh per day from the nasty business.

“Afaq would solve social problems of people in Moradabad by financially supporting them. The couple had three flats in Bangalore, six kothas in GB road, a farm house in Jaitpur and had also made an advance payment of Rs 50 lakh for a property in Defence Colony. We also found Rs 4 crore in Afaq’s bank account after his arrest. They had six luxury cars, four of which we have recovered in Delhi and two are in Bengaluru. We suspect a school in Jaitpur named Iqra International School also to be theirs as their daughter's name is Iqra. But we are investigating this part,” said the official.

The official also said Afaq was a ticket aspirant for MlA from Samajwadi Party from his native place. “After the massive earthquake in Nepal, a lot of Nepali women were bought and trafficked to Delhi by Afaq's driver Ramesh Pandey and his chief manager Vasudev Pandey, both of whom are Nepali. They were first brought to Majnu ka Tila and then sold to the kotha managers known as Nayikas and musclemen in GB Road,” added the official.

After a thorough study which revealed that more than 80 per cent business at GB Road (now Shraddhanand Marg) is controlled by 2-3 operators who have their own network of agents, a team raided different parts of the city and arrested Afaq, Saira, Ramesh Pandey and Vasudev Pandey on August 25. Another round of raids led to four more arrests of accused kotha managers Pooja, Shamshad, Shilpa and Mumtaz on August 28. But one of the main accused and muscleman of the racket Sarfaraz alias Billi is absconding, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Ravindra Yadav.

“In order to curb ghastly activities of this syndicate of human trafficking and prostitution operating at GB Road, Crime Branch has launched massive action and has invoked provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against them for the first time ever,” he said.

Investigation showed that prior to their arrests in similar cases in 2013, Afaq used to purchase kothas in the name of Saira but they later transferred ownership titles to some of their confidants. The Crime Branch study of crime pattern revealed that girls from different States of the country and Nepal, most of them minors, were victims of this racket. They were sold to the kotha owners at GB Road at the rate of Rs 1-2 lakh.

“The young girls are thrashed, confined in hidden cells, intoxicated and kept starved for many days to force them into sex trade. The kotha operators recovered monthly 8-10 per cent of the amount as well as interest on it which was spent on buying them,” he said.

Accused Saira hailed from Andhra Pradesh. After her parents died she came to Delhi with her husband Talaf Hussain to earn a livelihood but when she and Hussain could not find any good work, she started working as a sex worker at the kothas in GB Road that she later owned.

She was arrested several times in the past. Talaf died after a few years and later she met Afaq at kotha number 58 in GB road and the latter was attracted by the huge earning of Saira from the prostitution racket and eventually they both got married in 1999. They then started expanding the illegal business of prostitution.

Afaq was also arrested previously by police. However after their release from jail they restricted their visit to GB Road and used to control their business through kotha managers.