Hyderabad: Police have foiled a 56-year-old Somalia national's bid to enter into a contract marriage with a 26-year-old local woman and arrested him along with his compatriot and a woman mediator on Wednesday.

“This is a case of contract marriage racket wherein two city-based women, along with a Somalia national Mohd Ismail Muse, induced and lured a woman to arrange a contract marriage of her 26-year-old daughter with another Somalian Ali Ali Mohammed, during his stay in India, for Rs 1 lakh”, DCP (south zone) V Satyanarayana said.

On a tip-off, South Zone police conducted a raid at the residence of a suspected woman mediator, Anwari yesterday and rescued the 26-year-old woman from getting trafficked, the DCP said.

Mohammed came to India in October last year on a medical visa for his son's treatment. His friend Muse was staying in Tolichowki area here after getting married to a local woman for the last 20 years, police said. Muse came into contact with one Parveen (another mediator), who is into arranging contract marriages of poor brides with Arab nationals, by inducing and luring their parents who are facing financial hardships.

Anwari and Parveen allegedly lured the mother of the 26-year-old, promising her Rs 1 lakh for marrying off her daughter. Accordingly, yesterday, Muse along with Parveen and Mohammed reached the house of Anwari. However, after seeing Mohammed, the young woman's mother turned down the proposal, following which she was restrained in a room and threatened, police said.

The woman managed to escape and lodged a complaint at Madannapet police station. During the course of investigation, police arrested Muse, Mohammed and Anwari on Wednesday while efforts are on to trace Parveen.

Hyderabad police had in the past busted several contract marriage rackets in Old City area wherein such marriages were performed aided by fabricated documents, besides similar rackets wherein pimps fix alliances and foreigners purchase brides for sexual exploitation.

The modus operandi of such agents is to trap minor girls from poor families, by luring them with money and then practically selling them off to foreigners with the help of priests who solemnise marriages using fabricated documents.

PTI