Man arrested for cheating over 2,000 people in tourist scam

Police have arrested a 40- year-old man for allegedly cheating more than 2,000 people from all over India of crores on the pretext of providing luxurious holiday tour packages in five-star hotels.
The accused, Raman Kapoor, is wanted in several cases of cheating in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. He was arrested on the intervening night of June 19 and 20 outside Kalinga Hotel, south Tukaganj in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Madhur Verma.
Kapoor had opened a firm in the name of ‘Sun Star The Club’ and ‘Goodluck Hotels Pvt Ltd’. He used to send his employees to busy marketplaces and petrol pumps with coupons of their company.
They would ask visitors to these places to fill up these forms. They would tell visitors that if their names come up in a lucky draw, they would be invited for free dinner with family in a five-star hotel in the city.
Later, they used to call the victims to a hotel with family for dinner and his employees used to lure them by showing features and facilities provided by the club.
After the customers would be convinced, they would be charged between Rs one to 1.5 lakh for different types of membership in the company by showing different grade hotels, said the officer. After paying the amount to the accused, the customers, however, would not be able to avail the perks of the membership they had taken.
Police had received a complaint from Manoj Kumar, a resident of Patel Garden, Uttam Nagar that he had been cheated to the tune of Rs 1.12 lakh.
The company representatives cheated the complainant on the pretext of providing holiday packages for 12 nights per year in five-star hotels with air-tickets for 20 years after membership.
They claimed that Sunstar company has tie-ups with various five-star properties located at prime tourist locations in India and abroad like JW Marriott, Le Meridien, ITC Welcome, Leela Ambience Hotel and others, said the DCP.
The accused also told him that he can discontinue membership in the tenth or twentieth year and he will get back the entire membership amount. They also offered a refund of Rs 2,000 for each holiday to those who did not avail the offers.
However, when Kumar tried to avail the holiday offers, he did not get any response from the company, said the officer.
A Crime Branch team conducted several raids in Delhi, Gujarat, Mumbai, UP and Madhya Pradesh in search of the accused persons since they had duped several people in these states with the same modus operandi, he added.
Kapoor is a hotel management graduate from IHM, Ahmedabad.
He worked with Club Mahindra Holidays for nine years but after a dispute with the company, he left.
In 2016, he launched his business of holiday tour packages in which around 2,000 members have joined till date.
He employed people who had earlier worked with various holiday companies and were well-experienced in the field.
Kapoor, along with his wife and other associates are also wanted in eight other cases of cheating registered in different police stations in Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat in Gujarat.