The Delhi Police has busted a syndicate which was allegedly involved in cheating around 350 Government officials on the pretext of organising Leave Travel Concession (LTC) tours in 2013. The two accused persons, who are now in police net, had offered tour packages to their victims; however after paying for the packages, the complainants found that they were cheated, police said.
The probe has revealed that about 60 complaints from officials of different Government organisations, like the Ministry of Health, Delhi Health Department, Postal Department, AIIMS, court employees and the Delhi Police, had registered complaints at the Connaught Place Police Station against the alleged company INI Tour & Travel Private Limited for duping them. “Investigation was taken up but the accused persons were nowhere to be find,” said a police officer.
“Two persons, identified as Ashwani Singh (32) and Harpat Singh, the directors of the alleged company, have been arrested in the case.
“According to police, the accused were on the run since 2013 and their whereabouts could not be traced. A police team led by the Station House Officer (SHO) of Connaught Place Inspector Vinod Narang traced the accused persons.
“On Wednesday last, Ashwani Singh was arrested from Mohan Garden in Uttam Nagar and during his police remand another accused Harpat Singh was traced from Gurugram,” police said.
“According to one of the complainants, Surender Kumar, in 2013, a woman who identified herself as Monika Tyagi contacted him from her mobile regarding a tour programme for Jammu & Kashmir for Government servants.
“She introduced herself as the marketing executive in INI Tour & Travel Private Limited,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said.
“On her assurance the complainant Surender paid Rs 91,000 in cash to Monika. On June 15, 2013, when the complainant visited the office of INI Tour and Travel in Connaught Place neither the company nor the woman was there,” said the DCP.
“Police revealed that a team from Connaught Place Police Station was constituted and during the course of investigation, police found that the alleged company had cheated several Government employees and absconded.
“Around 60 victims were contacted to know about the culprits. The team got in touch with executive staff working in the company, including Monika, and they were interrogated. During questioning, it was revealed that four people identified as Ashiwini Singh and Harpat Singh had hired employees, including two identified as Bhavesh, Mahendra Paleja, and assigned them to sell LTC tour packages to Government employees for a tour to Srinagar,” the DCP said. “Two batches of tour packages were organised by the company.
“On June 12, 2013, 180 passengers departed from New Delhi to Sri Nagar through GO Airline, but on June 16, 2013, when the passengers reached Sri Nagar Airport for their return journey their flight had reportedly been cancelled due to non-payment to the airline company. In the same way 180 more passengers reached New Delhi Airport on June 16, 2013 to start their LTC Tour from Delhi to Sri Nagar, their flight was also cancelled by the airline company due to non-payment,” he added.
“During investigation, it was found that Ashwani was currently working with a renowned online tour company and has five cases of similar modus operandi registered against him. Meanwhile, Harpat does not have a criminal background. We are further investigating the matter to arrest all the accused persons involved in the syndicate,” said the DCP.
