On Monday (30th September), the Odisha police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) stated that they had arrested a person identified as Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh for allegedly duping 189 Muslims from the state on the pretext of taking them to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for Umrah pilgrimage.
The police arrested Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh on the 27th of September from Mumbai on multiple charges, such as cheating, and brought him before a Balasore court on Monday under the Odisha Protection of Depositors’ Interests Act.
Speaking about Shaikh’s arrest, a senior Odisha Economic Offences Wing officer informed that Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh ran a travel agency named ‘Al-Adam Tour & Travels’ along with his father Firdos Bi Abdul Mubin Shaikh and sister Saima Anjum Shaikh, in association with one Mohammad Bismillah Shaikh who runs AlIzma Tours & Travels in Vikhroli Kurla area of Mumbai.
These people have been accused of taking money from 189 Muslim devotees in Odisha with the pretext of taking them on Umrah, the police said.
“The two travel agencies took around ₹96,000 from each of the pilgrims, amounting to Rs.1.2 crore, from 2019 to 2023. But the two travel agencies neither took them on the pilgrimage nor refunded the amount to the Muslim devotees from Bhadrak, Balasore, Baripada and other parts of Odisha. When the devotees insisted on the refund, the two travel agencies provided them cheques that were dishonoured by the bank,” the EOW officer said adding that these travel agencies allegedly obtained huge sums of money in the same way from pilgrims in Maharashtra, Delhi, and other areas.
