Maha: One held for duping Haj pilgrims

A 49-year-old man has been arrested from Mumbai in a 2019 case of allegedly duping 27 Haj pilgrims, police in Maharashtra's Latur said on Sunday.

The accused, identified as Irshad Mehamud Ali Mir, a resident of Aurangabad, was arrested on Friday, they said.

He was produced before a court on Saturday, which remanded him in three-day police custody, inspector Sunilkumar Pujari said.

Shaikh Kasim Mohammad Sahab, a resident of Latur, had lodged a complaint with local police against three persons in May 2019, based on which a case had been registered under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention), he said.

As per the complaint, the accused had collected Rs 35,000 each from 27 residents of Latur for making arrangements for their Haj pilgrimage. The total collected amount was Rs 9.45 lakh, he said, adding that 13 of the pilgrims went for Haj, but they later alleged that the accused did not provide them accommodation there despite the promise, while other pilgrims were not sent for the pilgrimage although they had made the payment.

Two other accused, Jahid Mehmud Ali Mir and Imraan Vakil Ahmad Khan, are yet to be traced and a search for them is on, he said.