A dream vacation for a south Delhi resident in Kashmir with family and friends turned into a nightmare due to a rogue Delhi-based travel agent who got their air tickets for return journey cancelled and allegedly swindled the money.
Sanjiv Kumar, a resident of R K Puram, has now got a cheating and criminal conspiracy complaint registered against officials of Cupid Holidays Pvt Ltd in Kotla Mubarakpur police station.
“We spent Rs 61,938 for buying spot air tickets for return journey from Srinagar,” said Kumar, adding that the information that the ticket has been cancelled by the booking agent was conveyed by the airlines when they reached the airport for check-in.
Kumar is not alone about two dozen other vacationers, including many central government employees, have lost lakhs of rupees due to the fraud by Cupid Holidays Pvt Ltd revolving around issuing air-tickets and collecting refunds after cancellation later.
Naveen Gupta, an employee of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, missed out a vacation in Sikkim and left poorer by Rs 1,30,000 by the travel agent.
“The whole fraud seems to be of about a crore rupees,” said Gupta, adding that police claim to have arrested one employee of the company so far.
Like Gupta, commerce ministry employee Nanak Chand is running around to recover Rs 90,000 lost due to cancellation of air tickets. Another complainant Oojwal Manglik was duped of Rs 4 lakh in the fraud. The hassled complainants have even formed a WhatsApp group of their own for a collective fight.
According to Kumar, “There was no intimation or SMS from the travel agent and we were stranded at the airport after the four-day vacation last month.”
According to his complaint, he paid Rs 1,62,000 for return airfare of nine passengers to Cupid Holidays based in South Extension area in south Delhi.
“The journey from Delhi to Srinagar went off well but we were shocked on being told minutes before take off of the return flight that the tickets have been cancelled and money refunded,” said Kumar, recalling the mental agony suffered by his family and friends.
The complainant said on contacting a salesman of the travel agent, Ravi Kant, told Kumar that the director and managing director of Cupid Holidays were absconding after committing similar fraud with many other people.
Kumar said, while running around to recover the refund money, a business associated of Cupid Holidays confirmed that the cancellation of tickets was done by him due to pending dues of Cupid Holidays.
Meanwhile, Kumar has introduced Investigation officer of the case with over two dozen Cupid Holidays’ customers, mostly government employees who booked air tickets.
Published 11 July 2016, 08:01 IST