The students realised that their tickets were fake, and the travel agent who had booked the tickets had duped them. They lost 25,000 in the alleged fraud
Travel agent Ali
Seven college students landed in trouble on January 5 when they boarded a train from Borivli station to travel to Chandigarh and then to Shimla for shooting a music album. When they got into the train, they saw their seats had already been occupied. A verbal tiff between them and the occupants forced the TC to intervene. That is when they realised that their tickets were fake, and the travel agent who booked those, had duped them.
According to the police, six of the victims have been identified as Jason Fernandes, Kunal Lala, Round Rathore, Krishna Singh, Genevieve Pitchen and Isensa Luis. Fernandes had come across agent Ali's contact details on Justdial. "Ali from Bharat Tours and Travels called me up and said he could give me confirmed tickets for the onward as well as return journey," said Fernandes.
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"I asked him to reserve tickets for us in 3-tier AC, for which he charged Rs 25,000. He handed over the tickets to me at Naigon station and took the money. However, on boarding the train when we saw other passengers sitting on our seats, we realised that something was wrong. On checking, the TC told us that the tickets were fake and fined each of us Rs 3,000," he added.
Fernandes further said, "I had informed my parents about it. When they approached the Borivli GRP to report the matter, they refused to take the complaint. One of my friends tweeted about the incident by marking the railway minister in it. Soon after, GRP officials approached us and recorded our statement at Kota station. On returning, we registered a complaint with Vasai GRP and identified the culprit through some pictures they showed us."
Social worker Ashish Vertak from Vasai, said, "We will take up the matter against Justdial in the consumer court as well. How can they register such travel agents without verifying their details?" When contacted, PI Bhaskar Pawar from Vasai GRP, said, "We have received the complaint and registered an FIR under sections 420 and 34 of IPC. The case has been transferred to Manikpur police station."
Justdial speaks
'The details related to the case have been sent to the team concerned for an internal probe. However, there are no details regarding the number that has been mentioned in the document in our database. We will need the exact mobile number of the user, which he used to seek information from Justdial or the SMS he received. So far as the transaction between the user and vendor is concerned, Justdial has no role to play in it. Whatever relevant information we receive after investigation, will be shared with you'
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