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Ludhiana: Cops begin drive to bring fake travel agents to book
With police stations flooded with complaints against fake travel agents, the Ludhiana police have initiated a drive to bring them to book.
With police stations flooded with complaints against fake travel agents, the Ludhiana police have initiated a drive to bring them to book.
With the help of Crime Investigation Department (CID), the police have identified fake travel agents and registered 29 cases in three days, out of which 19 cases have been registered on the first two days of this month.
Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said the police have been scanning all pending complaints and more FIRs will be registered.
It is learnt that a total of 250 complaints have been lying pending with the police, some for the past one year. Agrawal said 26 separate teams have been formed for speeding up investigation in such cases.
“The police commissionerate has a separate human trafficking wing to handle such complaints. It is also learnt that such travel agents use to target people of other states and cities,” he said.
Tracing an uphill task
Agrawal said, “Most of the cases are lying pending because the complainants have no idea about the real names and contact numbers of the accused travel agents.”
“Such travel agents are not registered with the government. They are operating from offices in various locations of the city. After duping people on the pretext of sending them abroad, the accused change their offices to other locations with changed names. In such cases, it becomes difficult for the police to trace the accused,” said the police chief.
He said police teams were also visiting offices of travel agents and asking them to get licence from authorities concerned.
On December 31, 2019, the police had registered 10 cases against fake travel agents. On January 1, more than 14 cases were registered.
