A group of 50 aspiring Hajj Pilgrims has been duped by three persons running a travel agency to the tune of ₹1.1 crores. The three Muslim persons named Yusuf Hasanm, Ameed Hasan and Iqbal ran a travel agency named Asra Enterprises in Mumbai.
The story came to light when a victim, Noorulla Rhim Sab, filed a police complaint against the trio on February 7. Noorulla is a businessman and a resident of RT Nagar, Bengaluru. The cops booked the trio for cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Noorulla said that he had contacted the travel agency after finding their number online. The accused promised to take him and 49 of his relatives to a Hajj pilgrimage.
The accused had quoted ₹3.32 lac expense per head, following which Noorulla had sent ₹6 lac as advance to the travel agency in February 2019. He had also sent them 50 passports via courier. When Noorulla recently asked the travel agency to send him the visa and air tickets, he was told that he will get them in a few weeks. But instead of Visa and tickets, the agency returned the passports of the Hajj pilgrims through courier. After that, the accused persons went underground and switched off their cell phones.
The victim and his relatives had shelled out a total of ₹1.1 crores in between January and August 2019 to the travel agency in several instalments for their journey. According to the police, Noorulla had paid ₹6 lacs online and the remaining amount in cash. A case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against the three accused by the police.
This is not the first time that Muslim men have been found cheating their own community members. Earlier, a Muslim businessman by the name Mohammed Mansoor Khan was nabbed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for running a multi-crore IMA Ponzi scam.