Being held captive in Oman, Jagraon woman returns home

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 5

The Jagraon police have booked three persons, including a woman travel agent, her assistant from Bengaluru and a resident of Oman, for allegedly committing a fraud with a woman of Galib Kalan village in Jagraon.

The complainant, Paramjit Kaur, who had recently returned from Oman, filed a complaint stating that she was held captive in Oman, made to work excessively as a domestic worker and then she was asked to pay Rs 1.50 lakh (800 Omani Rial) to retrieve her passport. After the Indian Embassy helped her, she returned to the village.

The suspects have been identified as Jaspal Kaur, a travel agent, from Zira, Albaksh from Bengaluru, and Mohammed Hisham from Oman. Paramjit Kaur said she had passed Class X and she had a desire to travel abroad.

In a statement given to the police, she said she came in contact with travel agent Jaspal Kaur last year, who later came to her house in Galib Kalan. She said: “Jaspal Kaur told me that I would be required to perform household cleaning and cooking tasks and I would receive a good salary for the same in Oman. To arrange a work visa for me, she demanded Rs 1.5 lakh. She took an advance of Rs 25,000 and asked that the remaining amount will be deducted from my salary in Oman.”

She said on November 7, 2022, Jaspal Kaur arranged her travel from the Delhi airport to Oman on a tourist visa. On arrival in Oman, a person, Albaksh, who was associated with the woman agent, took her to the premises of Golden Great Lakes, owned by Mohammed Hisham, where her passport and original documents were taken. After spending around eight days there, Hisham organised employment for her at someone’s residence. She worked there for three months but received salary for only two months.

She said: “After they failed to pay me for the third month, they sent me to the Hisham’s office. When I enquired about my unpaid wages from my previous employer, he told me that Albaksh had taken a commission of 800 Rial from them to hire me.”

Afterwards, Hisham asked her that she will have to pay 800 Rial to retrieve her passport. “It left me with no choice but to continue working for another three months but I was not paid. I was held captive there.

Later, I successfully made my way to the Indian Embassy, where officials provided me with assurance that they would issue a white passport for me. They also made arrangements for my accommodation at a nearby gurdwara. I stayed there for two-three months. Finally, on June 2, I returned to the Delhi airport. Later, I found that Jaspal Kaur was not a registered travel agent,” she stated in her complaint.

An FIR under Sections 420, 370, and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act was registered against the trio at the Jagraon Sadar police station.