In a major action against unauthorized travel agents, the Commissionerate Police on Wednesday busted a gang involved in duping the innocent persons on the pretext of sending them abroad. The police have seized 536 passports besides Rs 49000 cash, a laptop and three computers from their possession.
Disclosing this here today, Commissioner of Police Gursharan Singh Sandhu said Special Operation Unit (SOU) of Commissionerate Police had received a tip off regarding illegal practices being carried out by these unscrupulous elements.
Following the information, a team led by ACP Ashok Kumar, SOU head Inspector Inderjeet Singh kept a close eye on these agencies namely VV overseas, Landmaze Overseas near local bus stand, Punjab To Abroad consultancy in Alfa Estate, World-Wide Overseas in Grand Mall and Visa City Consultancy in BM Tower near Football Chowk.
The accused have been identified as Nitin of Mahavir Jain Colony, Amit Sharma of New Karamsar colony, Sahil Ghai of Lal Kothi, Haibowal and Tajinder Singh of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar in Ludhiana.
The police after preliminary investigation raided VV overseas and arrested Amit, Nitin and Sahil. He added that on their instances, police nabbed Tajinder Singh and recovered 536 Indian passports and Rs 49000 cash, laptop, computer sets and other from the premises of other agencies.
Accompanied by DCP Jaskiranjit Singh Teja, the Commissioner of Police while speaking with the media persons at CP office revealed that Nitin had been facing 104 criminal cases in various police stations of Punjab.
Similarly, eight cases have already registered against Tajinder. Amit and Sahil have also been booked in four and three criminal cases respectively.Referring to a query, the CP said that further investigation was on so that this nexus could be exposed completely with the arrest of other members of the gang, if any.
A fresh case under sections 406, 420, 120-B of IPC and 13 of PTPR Act 2014 has been registered against them at Navi Baradari Police Station, Jalandhar.