‘Agent’ leaves families in the lurch in Singapore

Two families who were duped by a travel agent after promising visas have filed a complaint with the Kandivli police. According to the complaint, the agent who had booked them for a week-long holiday trip to Singapore and Malaysia, left them in the lurch after reaching Singapore airport. The visas promised to them were not provided.   

The police are now searching for a woman who posed as an agent of Nomads Travels and Forex Private Limited at Kandivli and accompanied the family to Singapore airport. The family waited for more than 24 hours at the airport. Later, they approached a relative in Singapore who helped them to apply for visas.  

According to the police, the agent, Sujata, had given the offer to the families of Jeevan Maddewad and Dharmendra Pal. While Maddewad travelled with his wife and two daughters, Pal went with his wife, mother and three children.    

“We paid Rs56,000 for each member. Once we reached there, she asked us to wait for 15 minutes. When she did not turn up, I approached the immigration department who said that their system did not show our visas,” said Maddewad.   

A couple of hours later, Sujata told them that she could not arrange for the visas and they would have to return to India.
“When we contacted the travel agency, it said that Sujata was not their employee,”  added Maddewad.   

Additional commissioner of police Ramrao Pawar said that the police are investigating the matter and have registered a cheating case against Sujata and the owner of the travel agency.