Umrah Pilgrimage Fraud: Man Gets 7-Yr RI For Duping Devotees Of Rs 1.2 Crore

(MENAFN- IANS) Bhubaneswar, March 28 (IANS) The Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Court, Balasore on Friday sentenced a person to seven years rigorous imprisonment for duping devotees of Rs 1.2 crore on the pretext of providing cheap, secured and safe pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.

The court delivered the judgement in a record time period of three months since the submission of a charge sheet in the case.

The court has also asked the convict Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh of Mumbai to pay a fine of Rs 2.75 lakh.

If the convict fails to deposit the fine amount, he would serve further imprisonment of 15 months.

“The judgement of conviction came out as a part of speedy trial that took only 3 months and 5 days after submission of CS and 06 months and 15 days from the registration of the case,” said the EOW in a press statement on Friday.

The Economic Offences Wing of Odisha has arrested the accused Shaikh from Mumbai on September 27, 2024 in connection with a case registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Mir Khursid of Dhamnagar in Bhadrak district.

The case was registered against the proprietors of 'AlAdam Tour & Travels' namely Firdos Bi Abdul Mubin Shaikh, her son and convict Nabeel Abdul Mubin Shaikh and daughter Saima Anjum Shaikh, and Md. Bismillah Shaikh, owner of Al-Izma Tours & Travels of Vikhroli Kurla, West Mumbai.

The convict and other proprietors of the tour companies -- Al Adam Tour & Travels' and Al-Izma Tours & Travels -- collected a total Rs 1.2 crore 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.

The EOW also found during investigation that, 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.

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.

Being induced, several devotees from 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 convict and his mother are the authorised signatories of the accounts in which the pilgrims' money has been deposited.

The collection by the owners of 'Al-Adam Tour & Travels' continued till the first half of 2023 after which the proprietors switched off their mobile phones and remained disconnected from the depositors.

The accused proprietors had also provided cheques to a few investors but the cheques were later dishonoured by the bank.

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