An FIR has been registered against two Mumbai-based travel agents who allegedly duped 53 people of over ₹31 lakh on the pretext of providing them jobs abroad, between December 2017 and March 2018.
The offence was registered on Monday after Imtiaz Yagathi, a resident of Belgaum, who runs a travel agency, Tour World, approached the Goregaon police. Senior police inspector Dhanaji Nalawade, Goregaon police station, said, “Mr. Yagathi told us that he had outsourced the visa and ticket procurement for 53 job seekers to World Tours and Travels in Mitha Nagar, Goregaon. The duo who run the agency were supposed to arrange employment as laundrymen, domestic servants.”
But, Mr. Yagathi was sent bogus tickets and visas, and in January, when the job aspirants were to fly to Dubai, they were informed that their tickets had been cancelled. The accused, Khayal Khan and Danish Khan, were operating out of a building, which they had leased for a year from Ashok Gopale, a local resident.
Mr. Gopale, however, said they had been removed from the premises long ago. “Their lease was up to August 2017. In June last year, a Kurla resident had accused the two of fraud. I settled the rent and removed them from the property,” Mr. Gopale said.
“We are in the process of contacting the 53 people. As they have already lost large amounts of money, they might not find it easy to travel to Mumbai. We will try to work out a solution. Efforts are on to apprehend all the accused,” Mr. Nalawade said.
The accused have been booked for cheating and forgery under the IPC.