Three travel agents hold Sangrur man captive, booked

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 15

The police have booked three travel agents for allegedly keeping a man in confinement at Bengaluru instead of sending him to Canada and torturing him for 28 days.

The victim has been identified as Baldev Singh (34) from Phullewal village of Bathinda, who worked as a driver in Dubai for around 10 years. Baldev is matric pass.

He returned from Dubai in 2017, following which three travel agents from Sherpur — Hapreet Singh, his father Sukhminderjit Singh and his mother Bhupinderjit Kaur — approached him through a friend saying they could arrange a Canada work permit for him and demanded Rs 20 lakh.

“I gave Rs 1 lakh to them. The agents told me to take a flight to Canada from Mumbai on November 1, 2017. I reached Mumbai and paid Rs 5 lakh to them, but they asked me to go to Bengaluru instead, saying four other youths would accompany me to Canada. However, the gang members took me to a house on the outskirts of Bengaluru and locked me in a room after tying my hands and legs,” he alleged. The next day, they compelled him to call his parents at gunpoint asking them to pay Rs 14 lakh to the agents as he had reached Canada, claimed Baldev.

“I was kept in confinement till November 30 along with 10 other youths. They used to give us injections and drugs to keep us unconscious. We managed to escape from their custody on November 30 when the gang members were sleeping,” he alleged.

“I reached home on December 2. When the agents didn’t return the money, I lodged a complaint in May. The police registered a case against the trio under Sections 420, 506, 342 and 120-B of the IPC and 24 of the Immigration Act on Thursday,” he said.

“We have registered a case and started raids to arrest all three,” said ASI Darshan Singh. “The gang members have also murdered some youths,” Baldev alleged.

The case is strikingly similar to Hoshiarpur’s Surinderpal Singh, who had left home for Canada on December 3, 2017, but was found murdered in Bengaluru. His family too had paid Rs 21 lakh to travel agents.