Fake travel agent arrested, 2 more cases reported

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 16

The city police today claimed to have arrested a Mohali resident, Jaideep Singh, the owner of Ambika International Placement Service, which allegedly duped a number of residents of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of providing them visas to Canada.

Jaideep Singh was booked by the Civil Lines police yesterday after victims approached the local police. The company having its office in the Ranjit Avenue area abruptly closed down its office, leaving aspirants to travel abroad in shock.

BK Singla, investigating officer, in the case confirmed Jaideep Singh’s arrest. He said Jaideep was booked by the police under Section 420, IPC. They were investigating into his antecedents and more arrests were likely to be made following his interrogation.

Paramdeep Singh, one of the victims, stated to the police that the accused promised to send them to Canada and took Rs 50,000 in advance. However, he neither provided them the visas nor returned the money. Now, the agency had shut down its operations in an abrupt manner. The company was not responding to the calls of the victims.

Similar statements were given by Tarundeep Singh, Arsh Sharma and Gurpreet Singh. They said the accused also took their passports. Recently, some of the victims received a message to collect their passports from Shantipath, Janakpuri in New Delhi. Another victim, Jaspreet Singh, a resident of Batala, said repeated calls to the mobile numbers provided by the company proved futile. He said he had given Rs 50,000 as advance besides his passport for sending him to Canada.

Meanwhile, the city police have booked four persons in two separate instances for allegedly duping local residents on the pretext of sending them abroad.

Those booked were identified as Satnam Singh of Guru Nanak Avenue, Majitha Road, Surinder Singh of Sector 15, Chandigarh, Vinod Kumar of Batala Road and Rajbir Singh, the owner of Arjun International Travel Agency, Nehru Enclave, New Delhi. They were booked for fraud.

Satnam was booked after a local resident, Amritpal Singh, stated to the police that the accused took Rs 18.41 lakh from him after assuring him of providing a work permit to go abroad. He fell in his trap after reading an advertisement given in a vernacular newspaper.

Another resident, Paramjit Singh, stated that Surinder, Rajbir and Vinod duped him of Rs 6 lakh after promising to send him to Spain for two years on a work permit.