Travel agents who tricked people with promises of settling them abroad, arrested. (Representational)
As many as 12 travel agents have been booked for allegedly duping 30 youths of several lakhs of rupees by sending them to the US on forged documents, who are now languishing there in prisons, the police said.
The SHO of Sultanpurlodhi police station, Sarabjit Singh, said a criminal case has been registered against travel agents following complaints that the youths from whom they had taken money to send them abroad are now languishing in Arizona jail in the USA.
The police official said that these travel agents, who were operating illegally, had set up a network at Sultanpurlodhi, Bholath, Begowal, Jalandhar and Delhi and used to charge each person Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for sending them abroad.
A case under the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act and relevant sections of the IPC have been registered against the accused travel agents, the SHO said, adding that police teams have been formed to nab them.