11 stranded at airport after paying Rs 8 lakh to fraud tour agent

Ever get that hollow feeling when a trip you have been planning for days and weeks gets canned at the last minute Well it couldnrsquot have been as empty as it was for these three Virarbased families waiting at the airport all packed up and excited when their travel agent did not show up with the tickets as he had promised Starcrossed holidays The families had booked their tickets online Bhikubhai Gosiya right and Rajesh Baxi middle with other family members The Baxis Jains and Gosiyas are close friends They were all set to fly to Disney Land in Hong Kong and later to Macau But they never could make it to takeoff thanks to the conman they took for a suave tour operator The families booked their tickets online on starxholidaycom after which they were approached by a representative of the website ldquoWith his attire and wellspoken behaviour it was difficult to suspect he could be a con artist We trusted him and each of the families handed over Rs 23 lakh in cash for a sixdaysfivenights tour package We got the shock of our life on reaching the airport as we realised that he had cheated usrdquo said Rajesh Baxi one of the victims An estate agent by profession Baxi said ldquoMy two daughters who are pursuing MBBS in Moscow were due to come down in June so we thought of a family trip abroad I also asked the my two close friends to accompany me with their families the Jains and Gosiyasrdquo Bhikubhai Gosiya who works with a private firm in Borivli said ldquoMy wife and daughter have never been to a foreign country When Baxi asked me to come along I was interested as all of us were going together so I agreedrdquo The third family that of advocates Archana and Nayan Jain and their two sons said ldquoDue to our tight schedules we donrsquot get much time so we thought it was a great idea for the whole family to go and spend quality time togetherrdquo Enter suave agent Baxi said ldquoIn Mayend through one of the websites I got to know of Starxholidays Pvt Ltd After I gave the details of our requirements I got a call from one Rizwan Khan from the companyrdquo Two weeks later Khan went to meet Baxi ldquoHe was welldressed carrying a laptop and seemed to be below 25 years of age He gave me all the tour details showed all the places wersquod visit the hotels wersquod stay at and so on He also gave me a well designed brochure which had an address and everything After negotiations the tour expenses were fixed at Rs 40000 per personrdquo Khan asked for half the total cost before the tour and said hersquod collect the remaining afterwards The families transferred around Rs 6 lakh in all to an ICICI bank account number provided by Khan The travel agencyrsquos addresses were listed in the documents Rizwan gave them one of Joshi Colony IP Ext Delhi and another of Raj Nagar Ext Ghaziabad Baxi said ldquoThrough his tone he seemed like a pure Delhibred guyrdquo Khan also said he could help them out with currency exchange So the families gave him another Rs 2 lakh to buy Hong Kong and US dollars which Khan said hersquod give them when they met him at the airport For his part to verify the tour bookings Baxi called up a friend in Hong Kong who confirmed their hotel reservations it would later be revealed that only 10 of the tariff had been paid When Baxi called up Cathay Pacific airline he got a confirmation for box bookings Rizwan said hersquod give them confirmed tickets at the Sahar airport in the city Bubble bursts Their flight to Hong Kong was scheduled for the night of last Sunday The group was excited for the trip They had gone on a spree prior to the sojourn and the shopping tab for each of them came up to around Rs 1 lakh The women had been to beauty salons a day before takeoff Baxi said ldquoOn Sunday afternoon I called up Khan and he told me he was on his way to Virar with the tickets But when I called him again his phone was not reachable I thought wersquod miss the flight so we took a taxi to the airport There I tried Khanrsquos phone but it had been switched off Thatrsquos when it struck me that something might be amissrdquo The three families were shattered when they found none of their bookings had been confirmed There were no hotel reservations either ldquoIt was terrible no one else should have to go through a fraud like thisrdquo Archana Jain said ldquoWe were so excited for the trip It is a heartbreaking feelingrdquo a young member from the Gosiya family said ldquoWe had been busy preparing for the trip for the whole of last month We planned so much and everything has been in vainrdquo said Nidhi Jain said The families will now approach the cyber crime police and lodge a complaint Senior Inspector Jadhav of Virar police station said ldquoA cheating case has been registered At certain places of meetings between the accused and the complainant there were CCTV cameras We have asked for the footage We are also taking help from the cyber crime cell to know about the website through which the complainants have been cheatedrdquo u00a0