Pilgrims’ progress to Kedarnath aborted with fake Pawan Hans tickets

Mumbai: Twenty Mumbaikars were defrauded of ₹1

Mumbai: Twenty Mumbaikars were defrauded of ₹1.55 lakh in May this year, by a smooth operator who posed as an executive at Pawan Hans to book their helicopter tickets from Guptkashi to Kedarnath, in Uttarakhand.

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The pilgrims realised that they were hoodwinked on reaching Guptkashi, where an executive at the Pawan Hans helipad informed them that their tickets were bogus. Pydhonie police have registered an FIR against an unidentified fraud, who had created a bogus website of the government-owned-helicopter service provider.

Complainant Rajesh Shyamsunder Khandelwal, 50, a Pedder Road resident, who has a transport business, had planned the pilgrimage for his family in summer this year. An online search for helicopter service took him to www.chardhamtravelsticket.in. The site directed him to a webpage where he found the contact number of one Anshuman Shahu, who identified himself as an executive of Pawan Hans and informed him that they book helicopter rides.

Khandelwal booked tickets for seven members of the family for May 25, and provided details of the passengers, including copies of their Aadhar cards and photographs on Shahu’s WhatsApp number. Shahu then provided bank account details and requested Khandelwal to transfer the ticket charges. The State Bank of India account was in the name of Pawan Hans. Khandelwal transferred ₹54,250 from his wife Sangeeta’s account online, the FIR stated.

After receiving the payment Shahu promptly sent two-way tickets for seven on Khandelwal’s WhatsApp number. Impressed by his professionalism, Khandelwal asked Shahu to book tickets for another 13 people and sent their details to him.

Shahu responded saying, since the server of the bank was down, the composite sum should be transferred to another bank account, and shared its details.

Khandelwal transferred ₹1,00,750 from his wife’s account. Return tickets of the 13 passengers were sent on his WhatsApp, following which Shahu also shared a link of Pawan Hans’s official site. On clicking the link and entering the PNR numbers Khandelwal could see all the tickets were confirmed.

On May 24, Khandelwal, along with his family and relatives reached Guptkashi. They were to go to Kedarnath the next day. However, on May 24 Khandelwal dropped by at the helipad to enquire about the next day’s chopper ride for 20 passengers. “When he produced the tickets, the Pawan Hans executive informed him they were bogus,” a police officer from Pydhonie police station said.

The executive also told Khandelwal that the website was false and that no one called Anshuman Shahu worked for them, the officer added.

“Our large group included three senior citizens. All of us faced tremendous inconvenience because of the fraud. The helicopter rides were booked to avoid inconvenience to the elderly,” said Khandelwal. The pilgrims were compelled to cover the 20-km stretch between Guptkashi and Kedarnath on horseback, paying between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000 for a single journey for each person.

“We learnt from a local police officer that 15 other people from elsewhere in the country were similarly duped by the racket. Up until then pilgrims were duped to the tune of ₹6 crore,” Khandelwal said, adding since Shahu was on call with him till the last day, there was no way to guess something may have been amiss. Shahu had switched off his phone only after the pilgrims reached Guptkashi.

Khandelwal filed a police complaint after returning to Mumbai and submitted all proofs to the police.

Preliminary probe by the police has revealed that the accused was operating from Hubli, West Bengal, and used bank accounts of people from Garhwal and Dehradun to deposit the money.

Pydhonie police on Wednesday registered an FIR under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of Information Technology Act.

Cops will also reach out to the banks of the account holders to seek details of the bogus website.

TA Dayasagar, from Pawan Hans’s senior management, said multiple frauds were reported between 2018-19, whereupon they had written to the Uttarakhand government, requesting it to take over the ticketing process for Pawan Hans in the state.

“Since then, the Uttarakhand government takes care of all the bookings. A simple click on the ticket booking section on our portal will take the consumer to booking for helicopter service by Uttarakhand government,” he added.

The official also said, “We have identified mobile numbers of suspects, agents and rogues who defraud people by misusing Pawan Hans’s name. We have also filed FIRs. Based on our information police have also made three arrests last year from West Bengal and other states.”