Minister, IGP among 50 VIPs accommodated by Hajeej

Owner of fraudulent travel agency arrested in Mumbai while boarding a Jeddah-bound flight

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 4: Owner of a high profile travel agency has been arrested by J&K Police in Mumbai for cheating nearly 550 Kashmiri Hajj aspirants even as he has accommodated 50 VIPs, including a Cabinet Minister and an Inspector General of Police (IGP), and arranged their pilgrimage.

Informed sources revealed to Early Times that entire group of 50 VIPs from Kashmir boarded a Delhi-Mumbai-Jeddah flight SV-745 of Saudi Airlines on Wednesday last at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Fugitive operator of the travel agency Hajeej, namely Arsalan Wahid Gilkar S/o Abdul Wahid Gilkar R/o Chandpora, Harwan, Srinagar, was also booked on the same flight from Mumbai to Jeddah. Since J&K Police had circulated a look out notice to all domestic and international airports in India last week, Arsalan was identified at immigration and customs check and handed over to SHO of Police Station Khanyar.

Fifty of the highly influential VIPS, whose pilgrimage had been arranged by Arsalan while cheating 550 ordinary Kashmiri Hajj aspirants, included senior Congress leader and Minister for Irrigation and PHE, Taj Mohiuddin, IGP Railways Farooq Ahmad and Additional Advocate General Ali Mohammad Magray. Sources said that the flight proceeded to Saudi Arabia as per its schedule and there was immediately no intervention to pre-empt Arsalan’s arrest. Two of the well-connected contacts of Arsalan, however, made unsuccessful attempts to rope in DGP Kuldeep Khoda and other senior functionaries of the state government.

Reports from Saudi Arabia said that the entire group of 50 VIP pilgrims, carried by Hajeej, landed in trouble when nobody from the company reported to provide the services promised. They later established contact with Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi which further managed their rapport with Consulate in Jeddah and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh with the direction that accommodation and traveling of the pilgrims be arranged on war footing basis as just few days were left to beginning of Hajj at Mecca.

Detainee Arsalan was brought back to Srinagar by a party of Police Station Khanyar on Thursday and immediately subjected to sustained interrogation. He is being interrogated as to how he cheated 550 Hajj aspirants and grabbed nearly Rs 11 Cr from them. Sources said that search was still underway for Arsalan’s brother, namely Fabyan Wahid Gilkar.

SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, confirmed Arsalan’s arrest as also the fact that he had grabbed a huge amount of Rs 11 Cr from nearly 550 Hajj aspirants. He said it was surprising even for Police that the company had been operating in Srinagar without being registered with Directorate of Tourism besides the Central Hajj Committee and union Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Quoting complaints of the cheated Hajj aspirants and the information subsequently gathered by Police, SSP said that Hajeej had collected Rs 2 Lakh each from 600 aspirants since last year for Hajj-2011. Even as Hajeej arranged visas, air tickets and other travel documents for 50 VIP aspirants, it failed to make similar promised arrangement for remaining 550 aspirants. Until last week, Hajeej continued to assure them that their visas and travel documents were being arranged. They accordingly completed all formalities, enjoyed invitations and made personal arrangements for the traveling for pilgrimage.

It was last week only that 550 aspirants learned that they had all been cheated by Hajeej. As the angry and outraged aspirants staged protest demonstrations and sit-in, Police Station Khanyar registered case FIR No: 58 of 2011 under sections 420 and 406 against the Hajeej operators. A Police party, headed by SHO Khanyar Inspector Raashid, flew all the way to Mumbai, circulated look out notices for the accused Arsalan and Fabyan and finally succeeded in detaining Arsalan at Mumbai International Airport.

SHO Khanyar, Inspector Raashid, said that Police obtained remand of nine days custodial interrogation from Second Additional Munsiff Srinagar on Thursday. He said that Police were looking for Fabyan and quizzing Arsalan how Hajeej had cheated 550 gullible Hajj aspirants and grabbed money worth Rs 11 Cr from them. He said that the money seemed to have been transferred to overseas accounts but the matter was still under investigation. According to him, Hajeej had been extensively projected by official electronic media and newspapers while operating from Rambagh, Srinagar, for five years before shifting office to Munnawwarabad, Khanyar, last year.

Enquiries made by Early Times revealed further that nearly 30 travel agencies, based in Kashmir valley, have been conducting package Umra and Hajj tours of aspirants. While as only nine of them are registered with the authorities, others have been operating illegally with the support of certain influential individuals---politicians, bureaucrats, Police officials etc. J&K State has got 8300 official Hajj seats this year as per its Muslim population plus a special quota.

In addition to that 250 seats have been allotted by MEA in favour of nine registered private travel agencies. Unregistered agencies have been illegally buying seats from Delhi and Mumbai-based authorized agencies and subsequently selling same to other groups who charge exorbitant rates from gullible Hajj aspirants.

END