Ludhiana: Couple, aide booked in fake air ticket scam
Seven days after a travel agent threatened to self-immolate at the janata darbar held by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging police inaction, a Ludhiana-based couple and their aide have been booked for selling him 273 fake air tickets
Seven days after a travel agent threatened to self-immolate at the janata darbar held by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging police inaction, a Ludhiana-based couple and their aide have been booked for selling him 273 fake air tickets.
The accused have been identified as Deepak Raj of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Pakhowal Road; his wife Saru Singh and their aide Deepak Sharma of Adarsh Nagar, Chandigarh Road.
The FIR was lodged based on the complaint of Navdeep Singh, a resident of United Enclave, Manakwal, who owns a travel agency. He told police that he had bought 273 air tickets from the accused trio, which he later found were fake. He added that the fraud cost him ₹2.5 crore. Navdeep had filed the complaint on December 13, 2021.
ASI Gurcharan Singh, who is investigating the case, said that an FIR under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code has been lodged at Division Number 5 police station after investigation. A hunt is on for the arrest of the accused.
The scam had surfaced in December last year after multiple travel agents from Punjab, including Navdeep, complained that at least 300 total air tickets they had bought from a dealer turned out to be fake.
They had told police that the dealers had taken the details of travellers from them and promised to send the physical ticket by December 12, but did not and also stopped taking their calls. Later, the they found that the passenger name record (PNR) numbers given to them were fake.
2 booked for duping woman out of ₹1.3 lakh by posing as MC officials
Two men have been booked for posing as municipal corporation (MC) officials and duping an elderly woman out of ₹1.3 lakh on the pretext of helping her secure a government flat.
The accused have been identified as Satpal Singh of Ram Nagar, Bhamian Kalan, and Vijay of Lachhman Nagar, Mundian.
The FIR was lodged based on the statement of the victim, Rama Rani, 60, of Beli Ram Chowk, Chhawni Mohalla. Rani said that the duo, posing as MC officials, contacted her in 2020 and took ₹1.75 lakh on the promise of helping her get a government flat.
She said that when she threatened to file a police complaint after they didn’t fulfil their promise, they returned ₹45,000 to her. She added that they promised to return the full amount, but did not, following which she filed a complaint on July 14, 2020.
ASI Balwinder Singh, who is investigating the case, said that a cheating case has been lodged at the Division Number 4 police station.
