J&K: Police arrests travel agent for selling fake helicopter tickets for Amarnath pilgrimage

With barely three weeks to go for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, the crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested a self-proclaimed travel agent who had been allegedly cheating people by selling fake helicopter tickets at exorbitant rates.

Acting on a complaint from Global Vectra, a private helicopter company authorised to ferry pilgrims to the Himalayan cave shrive, a team of crime branch personnel headed by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ramesh Jalla nabbed Sanjay Bajaj, who runs an unauthorised travel agency adjacent to the Roop Nagar police station in the city.

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The case started when a resident of Haridwar approached Global Vectra, seeking to verify the four tickets he had purchased from Bajaj for Rs 22,000, a charge which is higher than the fare fixed by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). The cost of one-way travel has been fixed at Rs 1,715. 

The company got in touch with the police as the tickets were not issued by it. Police cracked the case after tracing the bank account number to which the money had been transferred. 

SSP Jalla advised pilgrims using helicopter services to verify their tickets before they proceed for the yatra, which starts on June 29.

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