Travel agent held for issuing fake air tickets worth over Rs 1 cr

A 30-year-old travel agent allegedly duped several clients of over Rs 1 crore by providing them fake air tickets, police said Monday.

Sandeep Kumar Jha, a resident of north-east Delhi's Khajuri Khas, is a 'proclaimed offender' and also wanted in numerous cheating cases in Jaipur, Pune and Puducherry, they said.

He used to work in a travel agency in Connaught Place and issued fake airline tickets and duped numerous persons in various parts of the country, police said.

Following a tip-off, Jha was arrested from Sun Light Colony and during interrogation, he confessed to the crime, Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) said.

He had managed to convince the proprietor of the travel agency using his marketing skills. He could arrange for cheaper air tickets as compared to the prevailing market rates, he said.

After working for some time, he gained the trust of his employer but soon started cheating the firm and customers by issuing fake air tickets, he added.

Jha has done Hotel Management course from Meerut in 2009 and later completed his MBA in Hospitality through correspondence in 2015.

He worked as a steward in Five-Stars hotels in Delhi between 2009 to 2018. The lure of easy money turned him to crime, police said.