Gulf dreams stranded

CHANDIGARH: Some voyages are not meant for shore. And the one promised to starry-eyed, foreign-fascinated youths by a Sector 34-based travel agent was certainly not.
In what is becoming quite a scare in Punjab and Haryana, a band of 55 men, on the lookout for a job in Kuwait, are suspected to have been duped by the travel agents, leaving 16 of the lot to fend for themselves in a seedy hotel in Mumbai.
The economic offences wing (EOW) said it is close to finishing a probe into allegations of cheating and fraud against Navin Kumar, of Navin Enterprise, who's at the center of this racket. Official sources said they have, prima facie, established a case against him.
The story begins with Sukhbir Singh, who was lured by Navin to "collect" as many persons as possible for a "Kuwait-based firm that needed a workforce of over 300 workers and labourers".
But things suddenly went wrong after that. Sukhbir, who approached the UT police in the first week of March for action against Navin, said he managed to convince 55 persons for the journey and the group submitted their passports to the travel operator.
"He (Navin) said his firm had a valid license for supplying workforce to Gulf countries and promised me Rs 5,000 against each man I brought,"he told TOI.
Soon, as many as 16 of the 55 hopefuls, gave a total of Rs 16.10 lakh to Navin and he, in turn, first sent the men to New Delhi — in May last year — and then forwarded the gang to Mumbai, to meet up with his agent Majid Ansari there.
"Ansari received us in the railway station and lodged us in a guest house. He said our flight for Kuwait was due in two days," Sukhbir told police.
And that was the last they heard of Ansari. "His mobile was switched off and Navin began dilly-dallying after that," he added.
Many of the victims told police that they barely managed to eke out a living in Mumbai as they hunted for Ansari first and then justice.