Haj arrests expose dark truths

BANGALORE - The arrest of a Karnataka State Haj Committee (KSHC) employee and an agent on Wednesday has blown the lid off a network with suspected links to the Mumbai underworld and Central government officials in cahoots to dupe pilgrims to Islam's holiest of shrines.

The Bharathi Nagar police arrested Ibrahim, a state government employee on secondment to the Haj Committee, and the Davangere-based agent Aziz after Khader Basha, a pilgrim, lodged a complaint when he found that the pilgrimage passage money he had paid, had not been remitted to the State Bank of India, Race Course Road branch.

Devastated on not finding his name in the list of pilgrims, Basha, who hails from Davangere told Deccan Herald that Aziz had promised him the pilgrimage. He alleged that Aziz had issued a fake challan as confirmation of payment of Rs 1,06,170. Basha realised that he was taken for a ride only after his arrival at the Haj camp. It came to light that eight more pilgrims had fallen prey to Aziz.

Money 'refunded'

As the news spread, Ibrahim, accounts officer of the Haj Committee, began to distribute the collected money of Rs 9,64,000 to the duped pilgrims. A volunteer, who noticed this caught Ibrahim and Aziz.

This incident came to light after 450 prospective pilgrims were denied visa at the last minute travel to Mecca. The State Committee strongly suspected that the Central body cancelled the visas to accommodate VIP pilgrims. This was clearly reflected in the statement of Dr Mumtaz Ali Khan, minister of Haj, Wakf and Minority Welfare, which said: "The question is what happens to the visas sent to the Government of Saudi Arabia. It is beyond doubt that some people have played mischief in New Delhi. The Karnataka quota of visa is released to some other state."

Even M M Mubeen, who trains pilgrims at the Haj camp, suspects that agents like Aziz operate across the State and there is a huge racket behind the fraud. Documents of the 450 rejected pilgrims will be crosschecked to find out cases of issue of fake challans. "These agents collect money, produce fake confirmation letters and sell these confirmed seats to others," he said.

Raking in moolah

Private tour operators in Mumbai charge close to Rs 2,00,000 from each pilgrim and agents like Aziz charge additional sum of Rs 15,000 as brokerage charges. "Since there is a lot of money involved, there is possibility of these agents being connected with the Mumbai underworld mafia," said S Fazil, a volunteer at Customs Clearance Desk, who has been working at Haj camp for the past four years.

Assistant Commissioner of Police , B B Ashok Kumar said investigation will begin with the clarification from State Bank of India regarding the authenticity of challans issued. "If the agent's intention was to dupe pilgrims then what was the reason behind returning the money? Are they trying to malign the KSHC's name by teaming with government officials and we need to investigate this indepth," he added. Issues like involvement of government officials, pilgrims given seats sans selection in lottery and possibility of political connection will also be looked into. "If there is possible involvement of Mumbai underworld in this racket, we will go all the way to investigate this connection also," Ashok Kumar added.

- Ruman Qamar, Bangalore, Nov 3, DH News Service: