HYDERABAD: The kingpin of the contract marriage racket, Qazi Ali Abdullah Rifai alias Volta Qazi, reportedly performed over 40 such illegal marriages in the past four years.The accused vanished after South Zone police busted the child marriage and human trafficking racket along with brokers and qazis last week. However, police managed to nab him in the city on Monday.“He was involved in arranging girls and parading them before Oman nationals. However, they rejected all the girls. Following the arrest of 20 persons in connection with the racket he alerted the Omanis. He also erased some CCTV footages from the cameras installed near his house,” said deputy commissioner of police (South Zone), V Satyanarayana “He moved from place to place to evade arrest. However, we traced him to Karnataka and sent a team there to investigate and get further information,” he added. The accused, meanwhile, was back in the city, and following credible information, police arrested him.According to police, he was booked in 2015 in a similar case of performing marriages of minor girls to elderly Arab nationals. He managed to obtain astay from court on his arrest. “He continued to perform such contract marriages. He would get the nikahnama and talaqnama signed by both the victims and Arab bridegrooms the same day of marriage. The marriage would last only so long as the sheikhs stayed in the city. The period would range from a week to one month. Then the sheikh would leave without any trouble as the talaqnama was already signed by the victims,” said the DCP.According to the police officer, Rifai conducted over 10 contract marriages every year, and most of the brides were minors. The three Oman nationals arrested on Monday were his clients, said police. Along with Qazi, his assistant Nayab Qazi Ibrahim Shareef was also arrested. “Shareef used to make the list and arrange the girls by maintaining the network of the brokers. He would also help with notary work and other paperwork for the sheikhs for their marriages,” said Satyanarayana.