Key ‘donkey flight’ suspect was proclaimed offender

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, January 19

The prime suspect in the Nicaragua ‘donkey flight’ case, travel agent Tarsem Singh, continued to operate his network to send people abroad using illegal methods under the nose of the police despite being a proclaimed offender in a similar case.

Investigations carried out so far revealed that Tarsem Singh, a resident of Buttar Sewian village in Mehta here, had been declared a proclaimed offender by a Jalandhar court in August 2022 in connection with an FIR registered against him on similar charges in January 2021.

The case in Patara police station had been lodged by Baljinder Singh of Kotli Ban Singh in Jalandhar rural, alleging that Tarsem Singh duped him of Rs 7.5 lakh on the pretext of sending him to Australia. He also has a fraud case registered against him with Batala police.

In the Nicaragua-bound ‘donkey flight’, nearly 200 Punjabis was grounded in France and later diverted to Mumbai. Amritsar rural police have registered two FIRs in Mehta and Jhander police stations against Tarsem Singh for duping the people of huge money by selling them “American dream”.

One of the Nicaragua-bound flight victims, Damanpreet Singh, was a neighbour of Tarsem Singh. He alleged that the agent had cheated him earlier of Rs 11 lakh by promising to send him to Portugal and Australia, but did not keep his promise. Damandpreet alleged that Tarsem duped him of Rs 42 lakh by selling him the American dream when he failed to send him to either Portugal or Australia.

Satinder Singh, SSP of Amritsar Rural Police, said: “We are analysing data to identify cases registered against him in different districts. We have written to all the police districts to inform us about cases registered against him.”

Besides Damanpreet and Kanwarman Singh of Talwandi village, who recorded their statements with the Amritsar rural police, no other victim agreed to record statements. Around 20 people from Amritsar were in the ‘donkey flight’.

Apart from nearly 200 Punjabis, 66 people from Gujarat had also opted for the Nicaragua “donkey route”. They had paid huge amounts of money to take the illegal route to the US via Mexico from Nicaragua.