Another FIR lodged against accused

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 9

A travel agent couple and their son seem to be in for more trouble for duping students of several lakhs on the pretext of sending them to NASA in the US. The police have registered a fresh FIR of fraud against them.

The accused, Rajinder Bawa, his wife Anju Bawa and son Aman Bawa, owners of World Leisure Holidays, have been booked along with two others, namely Kuldeep Kaur of Hakikatpura and Harpreet Kaur of the same locality, in the fresh case.

This FIR has been lodged by parents, namely Dalip Chopra of Gobind Nagar, Pankaj Sachdeva of Kundan Nagar and Anand Jain of Aggar Nagar. They alleged that their children were studying in Sacred Heart Convent School, Sarabha Nagar. The school authorities had arranged a NASA visit for students and in lieu asked for Rs 2.80 lakh per student.

Payment was made in November 2018 and the school authorities had assured that visa would be ready by May 2019. The school authorities took money from around 148 students but the accused agents failed to arrange any visa, and later also refused to return the money.

The parents had earlier staged a protest against the school management and demanded their money back.

It was also learnt that the school had collected Rs 2.8 lakh from each student out of which Rs 2 lakh (for each student) was given to the Bawas. The management kept Rs 80,000 as security from each student to take care of any extra expenditure on the foreign visit, if any.

When the NASA trip did not materialise, the school authorities refunded Rs 80,000 to each student. The travel agency refunded only Rs 50,000 to each student, that too when the school management lodged a complaint with the police.