M A I N   N E W S

Travel agent based in Greece booked
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 28
The Nawanshahr police has registered a case against two travel agents, based in Greece and Delhi, who were allegedly behind the illegal transportation of a number of Punjabi youths from Doaba region, some of whom were feared to have been drowned as their boat capsized while on way from Turkey to Greece.

The Ministry of External Affairs denial that no Indian was involved in the mishap has further confused the parents of Punjabi youths who had allegedly gone to Lebanon in search of greener pastures through illegal channels.

Travel agents, Satnam Singh and Gurmit Singh, have been booked by the Nawanshahr police on the basis of a complaint filed by Bhag Singh, alias Darshan Singh, of Buckapur village and father of Rachpal Singh who is feared to have been drowned in the tragedy. Almost all Punjabi youths, who were illegally travelling to Greece, had sent their passports back home in order to conceal their nationality and evade legal action in case they were arrested.

Mr Naresh Arora, SSP, Nawanshahr, said Satnam Singh was based in Delhi while Gurmit Singh was in Greece. Both had been booked under Section 420 of the IPC, subject to amendment of the FIR in the light of other developments in the case, he said.

It is learnt that more complaints have started pouring in from the concerned family members of the youths who had migrated to Lebanon and Greece through illegal channels.

Avtar Kaur, mother of Jasbir Singh of Amargarh village, told the authorities that she had talked to her son, who was rescued by a Coast Guard. Jasbir Singh was under treatment in a hospital in Greece.

Similarly, Satnam Singh, a relative of Jatinder Kumar Sabby, a resident of Khothar Khurd village and said to have been on the ill-fated boat, said Jatinder and his cousin Gora had left India for Lebanon on December 31 with the help of Satnam Singh, travel agent. The agent allegedly facilitated Sabby’s entry in to Jordan after assuring him that he would be sent to Greece.

Sabby had rung up his family on April 13 and informed them that he would be leaving for Greece within two days. But there has been no information about him after that.

Confused families questioned as to how they could believe the MEA’s press statements when the latter had been unable to come out with the exact number of casualties in a similar tragedy in Malta which shook the Doaba region about four years ago.