Tribune News Service Ludhiana January 9 A Ludhiana family was allegedly duped by a tout outside the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Chandigarh where they had gone to get their passports updated. Assuring the family to get the work done the tout took Rs 20000 from members of the family. Taking a serious note of the fraud the RPO Sibash Kabiraj got an FIR registered against the accused. The incident took place last morning when Paramjeet Singh of Jagraon village in Ludhiana along with his mother Devinder Kaur and grandfather visited the RPO at Sector 34 in Chandigarh for the correction of the place of birth in their passports. “Outside the RPO office they came in contact with a tout Dimple running a juice/ tea/coffee shop in the nearby block who misguided them and took Rs 20000 from them on the pretext of getting their job done” the RPO told The Tribune on Saturday. Later the applicants approached the RPO where as per the protocol they were attended to by the officials concerned and they submitted their documents for examination by the officials. The papers reached the office of the Deputy Passport Officer (DPO) Amit Kumar Rawat who got suspicious when the applicants were not able to answer the questions. “The mother and son were called to the office and asked to explain in detail their ordeal following which they revealed that the tout Dimple had misguided them and took Rs 20000 from them” the RPO said. The DPO Rawat immediately brought the matter to the notice of the RPO who took a serious note of the matter and personally inquired before contacting the SSP to take cognisance of the cheating case. Subsequently the SHO of the Sector 34 police station attended to the complaint given by the applicant and forwarded by the RPO office to register an FIR against the tout who cheated the innocent applicants and to take legal action against him as per the law. The RPO has advised the public to avoid such touts and directly contact the passport office if not personally then even through Twitter e-mail or WhatsApp video call. Pertinently the Chandigarh RPO was on top in the country in handling grievances and their redress.

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