HC: Fraud by travel agents unabated

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

More than 15 years after the administrative heads of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh were asked to avert a repeat of the 1996 Malta boat tragedy, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that the menace of sending people abroad on forged documents and leaving them stranded in foreign countries is continuing.

Justice GS Sandhawalia also called for the custodial interrogation of an accused for finding out ways and means resorted to for sending people abroad illegally. The developments took place on an anticipatory bail petition filed by an accused against Punjab. The accused was apprehending arrest in an FIR registered at the airport police station in Amritsar in September 2016 for cheating and other offences under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC.

Referring to the contents of the FIR and an order by the Amritsar Additional Sessions Judge, Justice Sandhawalia said it showed that the forgery of documents was detected only when the person to be sent abroad, Gurmej Singh, tried to leave the country, but was arrested.

An investigation revealed that the petitioner-accused had taken Rs 9 lakh from Gurmej’s father for managing a “continuous discharge certificate”.

Dismissing the plea, Justice Sandhawalia said, “This court is of the opinion that no case is made out for the grant of anticipatory bail.”

The High Court had earlier also called for the intervention of Punjab and Haryana chief secretaries before ruling that the authorities concerned should explore the feasibility of using print, audio or the electronic media for educating the masses about the pitfalls.

The Bench had in April 2003 asked the chief secretaries to look after the “interests of poor prospective non-resident Indians, rather than confining their concern to those well-settled migrants who had already made a fortune abroad, so as to avoid a repeat of the Malta boat tragedy.”

Dismissing a bunch of 25 petitions filed by travel agents, the Bench had also asked the authorities to consider the advisability of taking steps for educating the masses after consulting the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Labour.

The possibility should also be explored to prevent middlemen from making unwarranted profit by regulating the recruitment and letting everyone know about the demands sent by various countries for skilled and unskilled labour, the Judge had asserted.

In the Malta case, 283 youths had gone missing while on the way to Italy through an illegal water channel.

Refuses pre-arrest bail to accused 

• Justice GS Sandhawalia called for the custodial interrogation of an accused for finding out ways and means resorted to for sending people abroad illegally.
• The developments took place on an anticipatory bail petition filed by an accused against Punjab.
• The accused was apprehending arrest in an FIR registered at the airport police station in Amritsar in September 2016 for cheating and other offences under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC. His plea was rejected.