At least 99 Umrah pilgrims belonging to Machilipatnam town in Krishna district have been reportedly duped by a travel agency. The Inaguduru police here have been flooded with complaints from the victims, seeking recovery of their passports from the East Godavari-based travel agent.
Bandar Dy. SP Mehaboob Basha told The Hindu that Nusarat Ali Abbas, representative of the K.S.S. Travel Agency of Kadapa, had collected ₹25.65 lakh from them. He also collected their passports and promised to arrange the trip in the first week of June. The travel agent had offered packages ranging from ₹28,000 and ₹35,000 per person saying some donors had pledged to bear the remaining cost. The pilgrims are worried as the travel agency has not announced the journey dates till now.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the money collected by Abbas was deposited in the bank account of the travel agency. “Special teams have been sent to Nagaram town in East Godavari district and Proddutur in Kadapa district to trace the accused. Our immediate task is to recover the passports,” said Mr. Basha. No arrests have so far been made.
