E-Paper
Duped by travel agents, 3 Australia-bound Punjabi youngsters stuck in Iran
A youngster’s mother complained to the police that three youngsters belonging to Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar districts have been held captive and the captors are demanding money saying they had not been paid by their agents.
Duped by illegal travel agents, three Punjabi youngsters belonging to Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar, have been held captive in Iran allegedly by traffickers who are demanding hefty sums from their families for their release.
In her complaint to the police, Bhagowal resident Gurdip Kaur said that Piplanwala-based agent brothers Dheeraj and Kamal Attwal lured her 23-year-old son, Amritpal Singh, with the promise of procuring a work permit visa to Australia and took ₹18 lakh in advance. On May 1, Amritpal and two other youngsters, Husanpreet Singh from Sangrur and Jaspal Singh from SBS Nagar, took the flight from Delhi international airport.
Gurdip said that on May 2, her son called up to inform her that he had reached Iran from where he would be sent to Australia.
“An hour later, Amritpal called again and said that he and the other two youngsters had been held captive and the captors were demanding money saying they had not been paid by their agents,” Gurdip said.
She said the accused made video calls from the phones of her son and the other two youngsters while mercilessly beating them. They want the three families to transfer ₹18 lakh each via money gram, she said.
Gurdip said when her family approached the travel agents for help, they found they had fled their houses and their phones were switched off.
On her complaint, a first information report (FIR) was registered at Model Town police station against the accused agents and one of their employees but so far no arrest has been made. Station house officer Gursahib Singh said that efforts were on to arrest the absconding agents.
