Cheat from the old school

Travel agent dupes government school principal of more than two lakh rupees. Had conned five teachers of the same institute earlier

Cheat from the old school

Travel agent dupes government school principal of more than two lakh rupees. Had conned five teachers of the same institute earlier

Shiv Shankar Jha, a government school principal, was looking forward to a quiet time with his family at a vacation in Port Blair, far removed from the cacophony of classrooms. The 60-year-old booked tickets worth Rs two lakh sixty thousand from Chehal Tour and Travels. But, the educator was taken for a ride.

No tickets: Shiv Shankar Jha (second from left), principal of the
government school in Ambedkar Nagar, with members of his teaching
staff who were also cheated by the travel agent. Pic/Subhash Barolia

The incident took place in Ambedkar Nagar area of southeast Delhi. "In the month of January, I got Leave Travel Concession (LTC) of Rs 2.60 lakh from the government for a holiday package for me and my family, which includes my wife, four daughters and two sons. Regarding this, in the month of February I called an employee named Roopchand of Chehal Tour and Travels, whom I have known for many years. He and MS Chehal came to my house and offered me a holiday package to Port Blair, which I liked and accordingly paid him Rs 40 thousand in cash and Rs 1 lakh by one cheque and Rs 1.20 lakh by another," said Shiv Shankar Jha.u00a0u00a0

Not the first time Jha
was not aware of the fact that the same travel agency had already cheated five teachers of the same school. "When I got to know that other teachers were duped by the same travel agency, I had a doubt and I immediately called MS Chehal, who was the owner of the travel agency.u00a0 But it was too late because I had given all the money to him. When I called Chehal, he gave me a photocopy of the statement of the bank slip in which the cash was deposited and told me that he'll book the tickets in the month of June. On May 30, I again called him but his phone was switched off and then I realised that I had been fooled by him."

Action please!
"We approached the police but no action has been taken yet. Cops also told us to lodge a complaint in consumer forum. We also wrote a complaint letter to the ACP of southeast district in this regard," said Nikhil, Jha's son.

Mahendra Kumar (60), teacher of TGT Maths at the government school said, "The same travel agent also duped me along with four other teachers last year when we booked tickets through him for Bagdogra. We also lodged a complaint at the Ambedkar Nagar police station but no action has been taken yet."

When MiD DAY contacted the travel agent, he was unavailable for comment, but his employee Roopchand said, "I know Mr Jha for the last 17 years and he booked the tickets through our travel agency. But he gave all the cheques and cash to MS Chehal. He only filled the rupees column in the cheque but left the name column empty. Even I was searching for him and because of him Mr Jha blamed me."u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

"We will investigate the matter and action will be taken against the culprits," said Ajay Chaudhry, additional commissioner of police, southeast district.

Taken for a ride
MiD DAY had reported on July 13 how, pointing towards a fraud tours and travel racket, around ten cases involving the same travel agent have come to light in different police stations across the city. Tempted by the lucrative prices offered by an agent named Sandeep Lochabh, 10 Delhi-based businessmen lost lakhs of rupees and have now approached the police for help. In one such instance, Lochabh, reportedly operating from Sector-7 in Rohini, offered Rajouri Garden-based diamond merchant Jatin Khurana, a five nights and six days package to Singapore for Rs 50,000 per person. "I was planning to go to Singapore with my parents. I was introduced to this agent by a common friend. He asked for the passports and Rs 1.5 lakh in cash," rued Khurana. He gave the money on June 21 and the tickets were booked online on June 22. "We gave the entire amount at an office in Rohini. When we checked the tickets' status online on June 23, they stood cancelled. We were shocked and immediately contacted Lochabh on phone. But he was unavailable. Later, we visited his office and met a person named Sudheer Sapra, who was earlier introduced to us by Lochabh as his business partner," said Khurana. Sapra, however, denied having anything to do with the travel agent. He claimed he used the office space occasionally but was not aware of Lochabh's business dealings. "Is it possible that Lochabh allowed a person to sit in his premises without knowing him?" questioned Khurana. Nearly 20 days have passed since Khurana approached the police in this regard, but they are yet to file an FIR. Interestingly, he was not the only complainant. He came in touch with other victims outside Lochabh's office and the police station. Four other complaints were lodged in the same police station, wherein the accused duped the complainants of Rs 1-4 lakh the same day.