Couple booked for travel fraud

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 22

The city police have booked a couple among five persons on the charge of travel fraud worth several lakhs in separate cases.

In the first case, the Division 2 police booked three persons, namely Neeraj Das, his wife Neetu of Gopal Nagar and Rakesh Khanna of New Madhopuri. The complainant, Gupreet Singh of Saiyan Kalan, said the suspects owned a travel agency at Suffian Chowk. They took Rs 6.5 lakh from him to send him abroad but failed to arrange visa. When he asked them to return his money, they refused.

The victim said the suspects had given him two cheques for Rs 75,000 which could not be encashed due to insufficient balance in the account. The investigating officer, SI Tamana Devi, said a case of fraud had been registered and further investigation was on.

The Division 3 police booked a travel agent, Harmeet Singh of New Hargobind Nagar, for allegedly duping a resident of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad. The complainant, Jaswinder Singh, said Harmeet had asked for Rs 20 lakh to arrange work permit of Canada and the US. However, he neither arranged visa nor returned his full money. He only returned Rs 5 lakh to the complainant.

In another case of travel fraud, the Sadar police booked a travel agent, Sarabjit Singh of Machhiwara, for committing a travel fraud worth Rs 12.80 lakh. The complainant, Jaswinder Singh of Jassowal village, said the suspect had taken Rs 26 lakh from him to arrange Canada PR for his son in Canada. When Sarabjit failed to arrange PR, he returned only Rs 13.20 lakh to the victim.