A high-profile sex racket was busted in Delhi on Thursday, unearthing an agency that sent call girls to corporates, defence officials and politicians to seal business and defence agreements. Delhi Police arrested Pritindra Nath Sanyal, 62, from his house in Safdardung Enclave for trafficking women from Central Asia and running the syndicate, PTI reported. The Income Tax Department had sent a report detailing the criminal activities he was involved in.

In June, I-T officials had raided Sanyal's houses in Delhi's Safdardung and Vasant Kunj localities, as well as in Lucknow, and found evidence implicating his involvement in unlawful practices such as impersonation and human trafficking. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh said they had also documented proof in the form of SMSes and WhatsApp messages.

Retired army colonel Ajay Ahlawat was also detained in connection with the case. Authorities rescued a Russian woman from Sanyal's Safdardung Enclave home, who was introduced to Sanyal by Ahlawat, DCP Singh said. Messages from her cell phone indicated that the woman, who came to India on a tourist visa on February 25, was being kept there forcefully.

Authorities are now investigating Ahlawat's role in the sex racket, as well. According to Singh, he was involved in a number of cheating cases.

During the raids at Sanyal's houses, I-T officials found documents with letterheads belonging to MPs and senior politicians from the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. The papers also had their signatures, The New Indian Express reported. These include MPs Naresh Agarwal and Jagdambika Pal, Singh said, adding that Sanyal used these "fake letterheads" recovered from his house to "get his work done in government offices".

They also confiscated copies of passports of other foreign nationals during the raid, along with phone numbers of several Central Asian women. "Messages exchanged between accused Sanyal and his associates revealed financial transactions related to foreign women," the officer said.