Rajkot: Malaviyanagar police have booked a couple who operated a travel agency in the city for allegedly cheating a professor and eight others of more than Rs 50 lakh after promising international holiday packages.The FIR was registered on Saturday against city residents Abhinav Patel and his wife Dhara Patel. They operated a tours and travel office from the R K Prime building near Nana Mava Circle, according to the complaint.The complainant, 58-year-old professor Bharat Vaher, told police that he contacted the agency while planning an overseas holiday with his family. The accused allegedly offered an eight nights, nine-day package and collected money in instalments.
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The complaint states that the couple subsequently postponed or cancelled the trip and repeatedly sought more time to return the money. They later shut their office and switched off their mobile phones.Vaher learnt about other customers facing similar problems after joining a WhatsApp group created by people who had booked packages through the agency, the FIR states.According to police, the accused had collected money for trips to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Bali. The amounts paid by individual customers ranged from around Rs 1.49 lakh to Rs 16 lakh. In another transaction, a customer allegedly paid Rs 80,000 for a mobile phone that was to be procured from Dubai, but neither received the phone nor a refund.The FIR alleges that the couple collected Rs 50.09 lakh from the complainant and eight others through cash and bank transfers. Despite repeated demands, the money wasn’t returned, police said. A case has been registered under Sections 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
