Bhubaneswar, Sept 30: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police on Monday said they have arrested one person for allegedly duping 189 Muslim devotees from the state on the pretext of taking them on a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The accused has been identified as Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh, he was arrested by a team of Odisha Police on September 27 and later produced before the local court in Andheri, Mumbai, and brought to Odisha on transit remand.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police has arrested Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh for allegedly duping 189 Muslim devotees on the pretext of arranging their pilgrimage to Mecca. The accused, along with his family members and a partner, collected a total of Rs 1.2 crores from the devotees between 2019 and 2023. They neither facilitated the pilgrimage nor refunded the money.
Based on a complaint lodged by one Mir Khursid of Kazimahala under Dhamnagar police limits of Bhadrak district, the EOW on September 12 registered a case against the proprietors of ‘Al-Adam Tour & Travels’ including the accused Nabeel, his mother Firdos Bi, Abdul Mubin Shaikh and sister Saima Anjum Shaikh, and one of their partners, Md. Bismillah Shaikh, the proprietor of Al-Izma Tours & Travels of Vikhroli Kurla, West Mumbai.
In his complaint, Khurshid alleged that the tour companies' accused proprietors collected a total of Rs 1.2 crores from 189 devotees, between 2019 and 2023, to arrange their pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia on the eve of Umrah. But, they neither took the prospective pilgrims on pilgrimage nor did they refund the amount collected from them.
“During the period from 2019-23, the accused proprietors of M/s Al-Adam Tour & Travel Agency floated advertisements in social media apart from distributing leaflets containing the lucrative packages, contact details etc,” said EOW
The accused induced the Muslim devotees to avail the opportunity under two of their tour packages of Rs 45,786 and Rs 50,786 per individual pilgrim to go on Umrah pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
Being induced, several devotees of Bhadrak, Balasore, Baripada and other parts of Odisha deposited their respective amounts in accounts mentioned in the advertisements through bank transfers, in UPI and even by cash.
“The accused were running a travel agency named ‘Al-Adam Tour & Travels’ and advertised lucrative pilgrimage packages on social media and through leaflets. Devotees from various parts of Odisha deposited their money through bank transfers, UPI, and cash. The investigation revealed that the accused diverted the collected money to personal accounts and later became unreachable.
The accused proprietors had also provided cheques to a few investors but the cheques were later dishonoured by the bank.
