Agent held for cheating customer, advertising agency

AHMEDABAD: A complaint of forgery has been lodged at Navrangpura police station against the owner of a travel agency. The accused Parth Bhatt was arrested on Wednesday for cheating customer after promising to book air tickets for them.
Bhatt, said police, has committed a fraud of Rs 30 lakh by cheating both his customers and an advertising agency. The complaint has been filed by Harshit Patel, a resident of Navrangpura.Patel's family members stay in the US and pay frequent visits to the city.
According to his complaint, Patel contacted the travel agency which is located on the CG Road in February. His family members planned to go back to the US in July. Patel gave Rs 4.4 lakh to Bhatt to purchase return air tickets for his six family members.
Subsequently, Bhatt handed over six tickets to Patel.
In February, some 20 days after the transaction was completed, Patel checked the status of the tickets online. He was shocked to learn that the tickets had been cancelled. When they approached Bhatt, the travel agent assured to get him a second batch of confirmed air tickets. However, Bhatt never delivered the ticket and kept making false promises.
On Wednesday, Patel approached Navrangpura police and filed a complaint. Cops then tracked down Bhatt and arrested him.
Meanwhile, owner of an advertising agency named Abhivyekti, Bhimji Nakrani also registered a complaint at the same police station against Bhatt. Nakrani claimed that Bhatt had got his travel agency's advertisements published in various newspapers through his company. However, all the 22 cheques worth Rs 25 lakh given by Bhat in lieu of payment for the advertisements bounced. Despite repeated requests by Nakrani, Bhatt did not pay up.