Bhubaneswar: Almost a year after his arrest, OPID Court, Balasore, on Friday sentenced a Mumbai-based tour operator to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for Rs 1.20 crore Haj pilgrimage fraud in Odisha.
The court has also slapped Rs. 2.75 lakh fine on Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh, who operated a travel agency in West Mumbai.
The Economic Offences Wing had arrested Nabeel in the western metropolis on September 27 on the basis of a complaint filed by one Mir Khursid of Dhamnagar area in Bhadrak district. He alleged that the Mumbai-based tour operator duped him and a group of friends from Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak, and Balasore after collecting substantial sums of money.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the accused had not only deceived them but a total of 189 individuals in Odisha, amounting to a staggering Rs 1.2 crore, under the guise of providing affordable Haj packages. Nabeel collected the money under two tour packages of Rs 45,786 and Rs 50,786 per individual in 2019, but the travel dates were repeatedly postponed, initially due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and later citing tensions in Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Subsequently, he closed down the office and could not be contacted via mobile phones. His mother and sister, who were also involved in the travel agency, were unresponsive. Upon visiting Mumbai to confront Shaikh, the victims were shocked to find that the travel agency’s address was fictitious.
