Mumbai: Travel agent dupes Haj pilgrims, booked

A 42-year-old man has registered a complaint at VB Nagar police station against an absconding travel agent who is said to have duped many people on the pretext of sending the Muslim pilgrims to Haj and Umrah. The complainant identified as Nadeem Shaikh who is a serviceman has alleged that the accused Mohammed Shahrukh Sultan first accepted payments from the pilgrims and then he fled away after closing his travel agency. The police suspect that Sultan has duped many people using the same modus operandi.

According to the police, Sultan was running the agency by the name of Ikhlas International Tours and Travels from a rented place near LBS Marg in Kurla. Shaikh's uncle and aunt have approached him to find someone who can arrange the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia at affordable rates. A friend of Shaikh who already knew Sultan claimed that if contacted him, the journey would cost him at an effective price. "Shaikh and his friend Imtiyaz Alwatkar visited the agency in May 2018 and Sultan initially told them that cost for per pilgrim would be Rs 2.5 lakhs," said a police officer.

After Shaikh submitted the passports of his uncle and aunt, Sultan asked him to come and collect the tickets from his agency in June or July. When he went to collect the same, he discovered that shop was closed for more than a month and two more people, Iqbal Khan and Siraj Ali had come there to collect their tickets.