Tout held for cheating foreign tourists

NEW DELHI: A gang of touts have been busted which specifically targeted foreigners posing as government officers. The gang would cheat foreign nationals visiting India and roaming around Connaught Place by offering them attractive travel packages. Police are also on the look for two more accused involved in the racket after they arrested one.

Delhi police received a complaint on March 20 by a Canadian national stating that she was cheated by a gang of touts which was misleading foreign tourists by posing as government authorized agents and by offering to plan customised tour packages. She had booked a luxury trip to Rajasthan for which she was asked to pay a large amount of money all of it in advance. However, to her horror the touts took the money and did not deliver the tour package on some or the other pretext. In this regard various complaints were received in various police stations at New Delhi District.

Upon detailed interrogation, the accused Idrees Shamshad Bhat (33 years), resident of Jungpura Extension in New Delhi, originally from Hazratbal, Near University Town, Sri Nagar, J&K revealed that he is active in cheating foreign tourists in Delhi since 2007.

"Along with his associates, he would trap innocent foreigner tourists by offering them attractive and customized tour packages and collect all the money in advance. Thereafter, they would either not deliver the tour package at all or they would just provide them with some low-grade tour thus cheating the foreigners. In this way, the gang would earn huge amounts of money from the cheated foreigner tourist, but due to their connivance, they could not be nabbed so far for their activities as they remained in Delhi in winter and would take shelter in J&K in the summer season," said DCP New Delhi, Madhur Verma.