Most illegal travel agents at large

ALLEGATION In Doaba belt, many agents have duped people on the pretext of sending them to Canada, US, Dubai

JALANDHAR : The police in the Doaba region have failed to arrest most of the unauthorised travel agents, who were booked for cheating customers this year since January..

According to information, the Kapurthala police have registered 37 cases against 82 travel agents, but the police have managed to arrest only 15 of them from January 1 to November 30.

The Hoshiarpur police registered 59 cases and arrested 11 people out of the booked over 90 people. Similarly, the Jalandhar rural and commissionerate police have arrested 43 people out of the 144 people, who were booked in 97 cases this year,

The SBS Nagar police have registered 29 cases against in which 50 people were booked. Only 23 have been arrested so far.

The police have failed to arrest most of the travel agents, who have been booked, they are also dilly-dallying on declaring them as proclaimed offenders (POs).

As per the police record, in most cases, agents had duped people on the pretext of sending them to Canada, US and Dubai.

According to reports, there are still many agents running their businesses without permission from the authorities concerned, but the police have not launched any special drive to weed out them. In Jalandhar district, there are about 240 registered travel agents and SBS Nagar has only 64 registered agents. Special campaigns of local administrations to make people aware of unauthorised and fake travel agents have also not takes off.

The police booked two travel agents in Phagwara after Bahadur Singh, a resident of Phagwara, filed a complaint that his nephew was duped of ₹7 lakh by them.

The Patara police station in Jalandhar rural also booked a man for duping a man of ₹2 lakh on the pretext of sending him to Malaysia. Inspector general of police (Jalandhar range) Arpit Shukla, said that he has recently directed senior superintendents of police (SSPs) to organise special drives to nab the absconding agents.

“Sometimes, the agents leave the state after duping people. But, I will look into the matter and ensure speedy action against all these people,” he said.

A travel agent Resham Bhatti was even booked for allegedly selling a woman and cheating by the Jalandhar rural police in September. Malkeet Ram, 45, husband of Paramjit Kaur, 39, a resident from Gorsian village in Jalandhar, alleged that his wife was sold in Saudi Arabia by the agent for ₹3.5 lakh. The woman returned to India on November 4 after the Union ministry intervened in the case. However, the local police are yet to arrest the accused.

POLICE UNWILLING TO DECLARE TRAVEL AGENTS ON THE RUN AS PROCLAIMED OFFENDERS. THERE ARE STILL MANY AGENTS RUNNING THEIR BUSINESSES WITHOUT PERMISSION