Travel agents dupe two of foreign currency on pretext of sending abroad, arrested

Airport police have arrested two alleged fake travel agents who had duped two persons of their foreign currency after bringing them to Amritsar on the pretext of sending them to Canada via a flight.

The incident came to light when the two victims — Jaspreet Singh of Ambala (Haryana) and Hardeep Singh of Garhshankar — were caught by Airport authorities with fake visa and tickets at the city airport here on Tuesday. They then narrated the entire incident how they were duped by the fake travel agents.

The accused were identified as Dharminder Singh of Baba Bakala (Amritsar) and Roshan Singh of Sohia village in Batala (Gurdaspur). Their third accomplice, Gopal Sharma of Garhshankar (Hoshiarpur), who introduced the duo to the victims was still at large and efforts were on to nab them.

The police have recovered 10000 US dollars, 855 Australian dollars, 550 Canadian dollars, 200 Euros, ~6,200 and a Kia Seltos SUV from their possession.

“Following their arrest, we have received a number of complaints against them. They had cheated many persons on the pretext of sending them abroad and took away foreign currency from them,” said Maninderpal Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police.

Giving details, the ACP said Jaspreet told the police that he along with Hardeep Singh was brought to Amritsar by travel agent Gopal Sharma. They were to go to Canada and he introduced them to Dharminder and Roshan. They reached Ekam dhaba on Airport Road at around 3.30am on Tuesday where the duo was waiting for them. He said after reaching the airport, they asked them to put the cash in his bag. They asked them to enter the airport through the VIP gates with their belongings.

The ACP said the police got information and registered a case on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against the suspects and launched a hunt to nab them. The police later arrested Dharminder and Roshan from Haer village on Airport Road and recovered the currency.

Meanwhile, the Civil Lines police have arrested Jagroop Singh, aka Lucky, of Dhariwal village in Rajasansi area for stealing a vehicle. They seized two bikes, including Bullet, from his possession. According to the police, Jagroop had returned from Malaysia around four months ago and fell prey to drug addiction. He started stealing vehicles for his daily dose of drugs. Besides the Bullet bike which he stole from Hall Gate area, the police recovered a motorcycle on his disclosure.

In another incident, the Sadar police arrested three vehicle lifters, identified as Ranbir Singh, alias Bhullar of Sadhpur village, Shashi and Navdeep Singh of Vallah. The police seized a stolen scooter from them.