Youth duped of Rs 3 lakh by travel agent

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 22

The love of a Punjab youth to settle abroad is a well-known fact. Many cases of the youth getting duped and dying while reaching foreign land illegally come often. But it seems that youngsters care less about such things.

Belonging to a humble background of a farmer, a 19-year-old youth from Shahkot had fallen prey to a fake travel agent.

Kamaljit Singh, the victim while talking to The Tribune, said around six months ago, he had given an amount of Rs 3 lakh to the accused from Lohian to send him to the US.

‘I had not cleared IELTS and he wanted me to send through forests,” said Kamaljit, who is a Class X pass-out. He  helps his father in farming.

He said looking at his family’s condition, he had decided to go to abroad to earn well.

“As there are no opportunities here, it was important for me to go. My father remains out for long in fields to earn a living,” said Kamaljit.

The police said they had registered a case under Sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 13 of the Travel Professional Regulation Act, 2014, against the accused.

As per information, family members had waited for the travel agent to return their money to them before approaching the police.

Besides, even after the issue was raised with the police, the accused had failed to return the money to the victim. He has not been arrested yet.

Other cases in six months

Three similar cases have been reported in the district in the past six months.

Sadhu Singh, a farmer by profession, was duped of over Rs 25 lakh by a Mehatpur-based travel agent around four months ago. He wanted to send his two sons abroad.

A case from Bilga had also been reported recently where Rajinder Singh (26) was duped by a travel agent. The accused, a resident from UP, had allegedly taken Rs 3.5 lakh from the victim on the pretext of sending him to Italy.

In another case reported from Nurmehal, Gurpreet Singh (22), a local resident, wanted to go to Canada to earn well for his family. Recently, the family took the help of a Ludhiana-based travel agent, but the latter duped the victim of Rs 5.6 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad.