done...Aurangabad: The city police have launched a probe against a tour operator here, who has allegedly duped at least 28 people on the pretext of taking them on a pilgrimage to Islam’s holy cities of Mecca and Madina in Saudi Arabia.The suspect allegedly took Rs 50,000 from each of them on the pretext of taking them for ‘umrah’, a mini pilgrimage, for a period of 15 days, starting from June 17. The victims, most of them were poor people who saved money for years, paid the money to the suspect in the past couple of months.The tour operator took them to Mumbai, and allegedly demanded additional sum of Rs 70, 000 from them. When they expressed their inability to pay the amount, they were kept waiting for their flight outside the Mumbai airport. It was only after they were not allowed to board the flight that they realised that they have been cheated.Meanwhile, the tour operator had disappeared from the airport.The victims hired a private vehicle and returned to Aurangabad on Tuesday and lodged a complaint with police.Jinsi police inspector Shamsundar Vasurkar confirmed the development and said that the matter is being probed and the process of collecting documents supporting the complaint is going on.The region has often remained in news due to a high number of pilgrims getting cheated each year by conmen posing as tour operators. In most of the cases, as the money is paid in cash, the victims rarely have any evidence against the suspects.During similar cases in the past, the city police have carried out discreet probes against tour operators, only to find that they have allegedly used the money for purchasing moveable and immovable assets in and around the city.Sources said that there was another group of 40 pilgrims, who have allegedly been duped by a tour operator but police are yet to receive an official complaint from them.

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