High Court calls for crackdown on rogue travel agents, raps police for procedural lapses

Taking strong exception to the growing menace of unscrupulous travel agents duping unsuspecting individuals under the pretext of facilitating their migration abroad, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for a stringent crackdown on them.

The court also rapped the police for procedural lapses in investigating such cases, while observing that the arbitrary clubbing of multiple independent complaints reflected a lack of due diligence and undermined procedural safeguards enshrined in law.

“This Court is constrained to observe the insidious trend of swindling common folks into parting with their life savings and assets under the garb of sending them or their children abroad. The promise of leading a more fulfilling and agreeable life blinds the innocent victims to the unethical devices of travel agents and their touts. Using honeyed words, these unscrupulous salesmen of false hopes of a better future entrap laypeople into embarking on an illegal, arduous and perilous journey, only to live under constant fear of deportation in a foreign state,” Justice Harpreet Singh Brar asserted.

Emphasizing the need for stringent action, Justice Brar asserted these travel agencies, as such, were required to be dealt with an iron hand. “A systematic approach in dismantling these syndicates is the need of the hour,” the Bench asserted.

The case before the court pertained to the improper consolidation of multiple independent complaints into a single final investigation report.

The counsel for the complainant-petitioners argued that the jurisdictional police had wrongly clubbed 30 separate complaints into one report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. He contended that the allegations in these cases were distinct and independent, involving different accused persons and victims.

Pointing at the legal infirmity, the counsel referred to Section 219 of the CrPC which permitted only three offences of the same kind committed by the same person within a span of one year to be tried together. He submitted that the date of occurrence, accused, and complainants in each of the 30 cases were separate and unconnected. As such, the police action of consolidating them into a single final report was contrary to established legal procedure.

The Bench was also told that the petitioners were facing an inordinate delay in trial since 2018 due to the improper clubbing of cases. Despite 44 prosecution witnesses being listed, not a single witness had been examined before the trial court till date. The prolonged trial was attributed to the absence of several accused, leading to procedural stagnation.

Taking cognizance of the procedural lapses, the court asserted: “Such an approach by the police not only reflects a lack of due diligence but also undermines the procedural safeguards enshrined in law”. Justice Brar also directed Jalandhar Commissioner of Police to file an affidavit clarifying the rationale behind consolidating 30 separate complaints into a single report.

“The procedure prescribed under CrPC is not a mere formality but a fundamental safeguard to ensure a fair and just trial. It cannot be trifled with at the whims of the investigating agency and must be strictly complied with,” the court added.

Sounding a note of caution, Justice Brar asserted: “Any deviation from the established procedure may not only vitiate the investigation but could also have serious legal consequences, including the possibility of the entire prosecution being rendered unsustainable.”

The matter has been adjourned to March 10, with directions for the Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar, to submit the requisite affidavit. The court also ordered the forwarding of the order to the Director-General of Police for information.