2 travel agents booked for duping youth of Rs 8L

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 19

A 26-year-old unemployed youth from Balachaur in Nawanshahr was duped of Rs 8 lakh by travel agents of Ludhiana. The travel agents had reportedly promised the youth to send him to Portugal.

As per the complaint filed by the victim, Rashpal Singh, he had gone to visit a local resident in the village and shared that he was unemployed and wanted to go to abroad and settle. He was then introduced to two travel agents of Ludhiana who asked him to give Rs 8,50,000 if he wanted to go abroad.

“I started depositing money into their accounts. They told me that first they would send me to Dubai where I would have to live for three months and then the next process will start,” Rashpal mentioned in the statement recorded with the police.

He said when he reached there he was given a flat where he lived with 22 other youngsters who were living there in the hope of going abroad. “For a month, the agents helped me financially, but they suddenly stopped extending help to me. I was forced to call my father to help me in meeting both the ends,” the complainant said.

He said despite a lapse of seven months, no progress was being made. After his mother’s health deteriorated, he asked the agent to help him reach India, to which they refused to help me again.

Balachaur police have booked two travel agents, Simranjot Kaur and Bacchatar Singh, under Sections 120-B and 420 of the IPC.

The police said investigation was on and the accused would be sent notices now.

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