THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A mother-son duo, who ran a travel agency, was arrested by Museum police for defrauding people across the state of several crores after promising fake overseas job opportunities.
The accused include Dolphie Josephine, managing director of Brookport Travel and Logistics in Sasthamangalam, and her son Rohit Saju. The third accused in the case, Josephine’s husband Saju Simon is absconding.
According to the police, the accused pocketed around Rs 5 crore after promising job visas to Canada, the US and the UK. The fraud came to light after multiple victims reported that they had paid large sums of money but received no job placements or visas.
Complaints have been registered against the agency in 21 police stations, with around 40 people claiming to have been cheated. Museum police registered three cases based on complaints from 16 victims. They reportedly lost between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh each. The accused advertised heavily on social media by offering salaries between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh in various European countries.
Victims were asked to pay Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh for the supposed visa processing and job placements.
However, even after long delays, no visas were provided, and the agency failed to refund the money. Following the scam, the agency shut down its operations and the owners went into hiding.
Despite the case being registered two months ago, no arrests had been made until Wednesday.
The victims staged a protest in front of the agency’s office in Sasthamangalam, following which the arrests were made. Most of the victims are from Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Kochi and Wayanad.
The arrests were made by a team led by Museum SI N Ashachandran. The police are on the lookout for the absconding accused.