KAPURTHALA MAN ABDUCTED AND DUPED OF ₹28L IN DUBAI

A 28-year-old Parminder Singh got trapped in Dubai after a travel agent reportedly abducted him and extorted ₹28.5 lakh from his family on the pretext of sending him to Canada.

Parminder Singh of Gaazipur village in Sultanpur Lodhi here, returned to India from Dubai after staying in Malaysia and Singapore in December last year. He was promised by the travel agent of being sent to Canada, police said. After returning from Dubai, he told his family about everything, following which his family approached the Kapurthala police on January 2 this year and filed a complaint against the travel agent and his family.

After an inquiry, Sultanpur Lodhi police on Sunday booked accused travel agent Sunil Kumar, his father Hari Krishan, mother Raj Rani and wife Rajni under sections 420 (cheating), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) of the IPC and the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act. “After he travelled from Malaysia, the youth was kept in a house in Dubai where he was forced to call his parents and tell them that he had reached Canada safely and asked them to pay the remaining amount to agent,” assistant sub-inspector Puran Chand an inquiry officer, said.

The victim’s father, Amarjeet Singh said he is a shopkeeper. He and Sunil became friends recently. “Sunil assured to settle down his son in Canada for ₹28.5 lakh. He took ₹7.50 lakh in advance and promised to charge remaining amount after his son reaches Canada,” he said adding that they had paid the remaining ₹21 lakh to Sunil after his son called him up. HTC