Srinagar, Jan 20: Several houseboat owners and hoteliers today accused a Mumbai based travel agency of ‘cheating’ them.
 They said the travel agency, operated by a resident of Varmul, had been sending tourists to different houseboats, guest houses and hotels from last year “without making payments for the same.”
 “The agency initially sent the tourists to the houseboat of Gulshan Ahmad and made the payments for it to win the trust of various stake holders,” the aggrieved said.
 “I started trusting him which led to business ties between us. But later all cheques sent by him bounced,” Gulshan Ahmad said.
 The accused, delegation said, later spread his contacts to other tourism stake holders in the Valley and ‘cheated’ them on similar patterns. The victims include Snow valley Tours and Travels, Ala Tours and Travels, Soul Kiss Houseboats, Jannat Guest House and others.
 They said many employees working in hotels and travel agencies had been fired and others were being denied salaries after they had failed to recover the travel expenses of the tourists from the accused.
 “I lodged several tourists send by the agency in my hotel, but after paying for initial tour packages, the accused started sending fake checks.  My salary has been stopped after my employers came to know about it,” said General Manager Jamaal resorts, Muhammad Shafi.
 They said an FIR has also been lodged against the accused and blamed the Tourism department of not taking any actions against him.
 Senior Superintendent of Police Crime Branch, A G Malik, said they were investigating the case and there hadn’t been any FIR against anyone so far.
 “The accused travel agent has filed a complaint against some stake holders of tourism operating in Kashmir and in-turn there are complaints against him as well. We are investigating the case and so far FIR hasn’t been registered against anyone,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST