Members of three families have filed a complaint against a tour operator for cheating them of Rs 1.93 lakh, police said.
According to the police, the three families had planned to visit Kashmir in the last week of May and had contacted a tour operator in south Kolkata over the phone for this.
One of the complainants, Subha Banerjee, said he and his friends had paid Rs 1.93 lakh to the tour operator whose name was suggested by a common friend.
“The friend who had suggested the name had recently availed the services of the tour operator. So we had trusted the agency right from the start. Rupayan Gupta, the person who ran the agency, told us that we need to book flight tickets immediately. We transferred Rs 1.93 lakh to his wife’s account on May 10 and he promised to give us the invoice the next day. But he failed. Two days later, we found his phone to be constantly switched off,” said Banerjee.
The complainants then tried to visit the agency’s office on Prince Anwar Shah Road, the address of which was given by Gupta himself.
“No such office could be found at the given address,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee and his friends reported the matter to Lake police station on Wednesday. A formal case of cheating and fraud has been registered. No one was arrested till Friday.
The Telegraph tried to contact Gupta on his phone but found it to be switched off till Friday evening.