Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha, arrested a person from Mumbai on September 27 in connection with the Haj Pilgrimage fraud of Rs 1.2 crore.
The accused has been identified as Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh.
He was produced before the Court of JMFC, 63rd Court, Andheri, Mumbai, and brought on transit remand to Bhubaneswar. The arrested accused is going to be produced before the Designated Court under the OPID Act, Balasore, on Monday.
The case was registered on the written report of Mir Khursid of Kazimahala of Dhamnagar in Bhadrak district of Odisha against the proprietors of ‘Al-Adam Tour & Travels’ namely Firdos Bi Abdul Mubin Shaikh, her son Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh and daughter Saima Anjum Shaikh, and Md Bismillah Shaikh, Prop: Al[1]Izma Tours & Travels of Vikhroli Kurla, West Mumbai, for collecting cash worth Rs 45,786 and Rs 50,786 from each of the prospective pilgrims totalling Rs 1.2 crore from 189 devotees, during the period from 2019-23, to arrange their pilgrimage to Saudi Arab on the eve of Umrah. But, the accused proprietors neither took the prospective pilgrims on pilgrimage nor did they refund the amount so collected from them.
During an investigation from 2019 to 2023, it was found that the accused proprietors of M/s Al-Adam Tour & Travel Agency floated advertisements on social media apart from distributing leaflets containing the lucrative packages, contact details etc whereby they induced /motivated the Muslim devotees to avail the opportunity under two of their tour packages of Rs 45,786 and Rs 50,786 per individual pilgrim to go on Umrah pilgrimage to Arab countries like Mecca-Madina etc.
They assured the pilgrims of cheap, secure and safe pilgrimage. Even prior to that, the agency had taken the devotees on a pilgrimage which made the devotees repose their faith in the agency and avail the opportunity so offered in the tour packages.
Being induced, devotees from Bhadrak, Balasore, Baripada and other parts of Odisha, deposited their respective amounts in the given accounts in the advertisements through bank transfers, apart from paying in UPI and even by cash under money receipts given by the accused proprietors. The arrested accused and his mother are the authorized signatories of the accounts in which the pilgrims’ money has been deposited.
The collection by the owners of ‘Al-Adam Tour & Travels’ continued till the first half of 2023 after which the proprietors switched off their mobile phones and remained disconnected from the depositors. Very few investors who had insisted on the refund of their amounts were given the cheques by the accused proprietors that were dishonored by the bank. Thereafter, various efforts by the depositors proved futile to locate the office of the agency and its proprietors.
