Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 22

Col Surinder Singh Ghuman’s (retd) is a classic case of how travel agencies, in connivance with bank authorities, defraud vulnerable youths aspiring to go abroad in search of greener pastures.Ghuman’s elder sister’s fixed deposit details were fraudulently attached with documents of a youth seeking admission in an Australian university. The youth belonged to the Majitha township in Amritsar. The travel agency preparing his documents for his admission in the Australian university is also located here.In the documents, the youth posed as the grandson of Kudeep Kaur, said Ghuman. He currently resides in Mohali. Kuldeep is his elder sister. The fraud came to light when the bank authorities sought clarification from Ghuman. His elderly sister had never married and officials of the Oriental Bank of Commerce at Mohali knew about this.Alarmed at this, he immediately approached the bank authorities and sought action against the culprits. Perturbed over the “indifferent” attitude of the bank authorities, he made efforts and zeroed in on an aspiring student, Arshdeep Singh, and the travel agency involved in the alleged scam. He then approached the Amritsar rural police. The student belonged to Majitha, falling under the rural police. After a couple of months, the case has transferred to the city police because the travel agency, OECC, was in the Ranjit Avenue area. Finally following an inquiry conducted by the Economic Offence wing, the Civil Lines police registered a fraud case in this regard on December 12, 2015. The inquiry nominated two persons, including a loan officer of the bank at Jalandhar, identified as Lal Chand, and Kulwinder Singh, an employee of the travelling agency, was booked. The inquiry pointed out that Kulwinder connived with Lal Chand. They kept the student and the manager of the travel agency in dark before attaching documents of Kuldeep Kaur with the file of Arshdeep Singh.Assistant Commissioner of Police BK Singla, who is investigating the case, said the probe was under progress while the police had already registered a case in this regard.