A travel agency operator escaped with six vehicles worth Rs40 lakh from city. A case of fraud has been registered by the MP Nagar police against the operator who used to provide the vehicles of victim and later escaped with the vehicles.

Police said the accused, identified as Ashish Saxena, lured the victims in the name of hiring of their vehicles and escaped with them few days ago and when victims were not able to trace him they lodged a complaint with the MP Nagar police.

A complaint was lodged by Mithun Mewada of Sehore regarding his Mahindra Bolero vehicle. The accused has duped five more victims in the name of hiring their vehicles for his travel agency.

One of the complainants Ramesh Parmar who run a tea stall near Sanchi Diary in Habibganj told police that the accused used to visit his shop and after they became acquainted the accused provided him information that he provides vehicles for Dilip Builcon Company. Parmar provided him the vehicle and was reciprocated with hiring amount for two months but on July 6 this month the accused went absconding. The victims found his house locked at Orchid Green in Ayodhya Nagar.

The police have registered a case under section 406 of the IPC and have started further investigation. Out of the six vehicles three vehicles are Mahindra Bolero, one vehicle is Tata Indica and two vehicles are pick up loading vehicles. The estimated loss of the victims is around Rs40 lakh.

The accused has borrowed Rs1.5 lakh from a woman by keeping one of the vehicles owned by Ramesh as security and after the case surfaced the woman checked the registration number and found that the vehicle is registered in the name of Ramesh and later demanded Rs1.5 lakh to return the vehicle but based on the complaint of the victim the vehicle was seized by the police.

Police have started searching for the accused based on the details provided by the victims.