Amritsar: Despite 4 FIRs, police yet to arrest fake travel agent couple

Tribune News Service

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, September 3

Despite FIRs registered against alleged fake travel agents after a thorough probe by senior officials of the rank of the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), delayed action by the police station concerned has often helped the suspects flee.

The case of retired banker Parminder Singh, who was duped by a travel agent couple, is a perfect example of this. The victim lodged a complaint against a travel agent couple, who also ran an IELTS centre in the posh Ranjit Avenue locality.

After a probe by the ADCP, the police registered a first information report (FIR) under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act, 2014.

However, the police failed to take immediate action and arrest the fraudsters identified as Amoldeep Kaur Gill and her husband Haramrit Singh. A few days later, they absconded after shutting down their centre.

Parminder had alleged that the suspects had duped him of Rs 22 lakh for sending his son Gurpinder Singh to Canada on a student visa. The complainant said he had lost a major chunk of the amount he got after his retirement.

His was not the only case. Three more cases of similar offences were registered against the same couple by the Ranjit Avenue police station.

Abhi Verma of the Lahori Gate area was duped of Rs 10.18 lakh on the pretext of sending him to Canada while Sukhjit Singh of Dhariwal in Gurdaspur district and another complainant Hari Singh were defrauded by the couple of Rs 12.75 lakh and Rs 17 lakh, respectively, for sending their wards to Canada.

Parminder alleged that the suspects had filed false and fabricated cases against him in the local court through their lawyers to harass him so that he could not pursue the police case filed against them.

“I have been making rounds of the economic offences wing which was entrusted with further investigation and action after the registration of the FIR, but nothing has been done so far. Only investigation officers have changed couple of times,” Parminder alleged.

He urged the police to arrest the couple and provide justice to victims like him.

Vatsala Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police, said necessary instructions would be passed to officials concerned to speed up the probe and arrest the suspects.

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