With the arrest of three persons, Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a "gang of crooks" who cheated foreign tourists arriving in the national capital by posing as government-approved travel agents.
The Crime Branch sleuths arrested the accused, identified as Harpreet Singh, Yaqoob Kawa and Udaybhan Pandey, on December 25, on separate complaints of two tourists from France and Belgium, received through e-mails, Joint Commissioner (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.
Complaints about such notorious gangs known as 'Lapka gangs' and their members 'Kalakar', who trapped gullible foreign tourists, and their conduit called as 'Cutter', who passed on the victims to fake government-approved travel agencies, were received for past some time, the officer said.
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The gang trapped their victims through 'Kalakar' who introduced himself to foreigners and misguided them by citing reasons like roadblocks and lack of hotel availability on their arrival at airport and railway stations, police said.
The French complainant said he was trapped by one 'Kalakar', who lured them showing him the placard of his hotel he had pre-booked before landing at the IGI airport. Martin was allegedly forced to visit Agra by taxi for which he paid Rs 25,000.
He was told by the accused that the roads leading to his hotel were overcrowded and there were no rooms available due to festival. Later when Martin checked with his hotel, he learnt that he was duped by the accused, he said.
Similarly, the Belgian tourist was told by a 'Kalakar' at the New Delhi Railway Station that his train to Jaipur was cancelled. He was also offered a taxi ride and charged exorbitantly.
The gang after establishing contact with foreigners at airport and railway station would mislead them with "false information" and take them to "fake travel agents" who would force them to visit some far away destinations like Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur and charge them "exorbitantly", police said.
Efforts are on to arrest the other accused who are involved in the racket, they added.
