11 travel agents held for cheating passengers on pretext of providing foreign visits

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Friday said it has arrested at least 11 people for allegedly duping people on the pretext of sending them to foreign countries.

The matter came to fore on September 3 at the IGI Airport where a team of security officials caught a passenger - Deepak Verma - who had travelled to London on someone else’s passport and returned to India.

On being questioned, Verma disclosed that his journey was arranged by a travel agent, Barinder Singh from Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib, on payment of Rs 17 lakh. He was sent to the UK in 2021. A case under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Passports Act was registered at the IGI Airport and a team was formed to nab Singh. On September 5, Singh was arrested from Capitol Hills Hotel in Greater Kailash, Delhi by a team from the IGI police station.

Singh disclosed that he used to send people abroad through illegal means and took money for them for the same. He came in contact with Deepak Verma in 2021 and offered to send him to the UK and took a total Rs 17 lakh from him.

Following this case, the IGI Airport police conducted a drive and subsequently, arrested around 10 other such agents.