Hyderabad, May 3: Mohammed Rasheed, the alleged kingpin in the human trafficking racket, surrendered before Andhra Pradesh police today.

He told reporters that threats to his life from politicians had brought him to the police station.

Rasheed’s name had figured as a conduit between Gujarat and Andhra as the CBI probed the involvement of Babubhai Katara in the trafficking case. The sacked BJP MP was arrested with a woman and a teenager who were travelling out of India on the passports of Katara’s wife and son.

But Rasheed, who runs a travel agency in Hyderabad, denied any link with him. “I don’t know anyone by the name of Babubhai Katara,” he said.

Telengana Rashtra Samiti legislator K. Lingaiah, who is now in police custody for securing a passport for a woman from Gujarat on his wife Tara’s name, had alleged that Rasheed helped him get the fake passport.

Rasheed’s advocate Muzzafar Ali accompanied him as he turned himself in before additional deputy police commissioner B.V. Chandra Rao.

Ali said there hasn’t been a single report of crime registered against Rasheed so far.

“I am innocent. I have absolutely nothing to do with this case,” Rasheed told reporters as the police whisked him away.

Commissioner Balwinder Singh said the police would produce Rasheed in court tomorrow and seek his custody for interrogation.

Rasheed is believed to be one of the key architects of the fake passport and visa racket, which has spread its tentacles to Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the police said.

The Hyderabad regional passport office and immigration officials have also come under the scanner for their alleged role in the racket that has rocked political circles here.

Apart from Lingaiah, former TRS leader A. Narendra has been accused of involvement in the scam. Narendra, a former Union minister, has been suspended from the party.

The police today booked another party MLA, S. Bapurao, who allegedly sent some Gujarati women and children out of India on passports belonging to his wife, sons and daughter.

The police said the noose is tightening around at least three more legislators — one each from the TRS, the Majlis-e-Itahadul-Musalmeen and the BJP.

Nearly 25 travel agents who used to hang around passport offices in the city and the airport seem to have suddenly disappeared after the trafficking racket came to light.

One broker told The Telegraph that since January, nearly 17 Gujaratis have been sent to the US and Australia. Last year, the number was at least 55, he added.