Salem: Travel co owner held for duping car-providers

Salem: In an unfortunate development, the city police arrested a travels company owner who allegedly duped people to the tune of several lakh of rupees by pledging cars after hiring them from car-providers in Salem on Sunday and recovered 11 cars from him.

According to police, Irfan, 42, from Chinna Thirupathi near Salem runs a travels company ‘City Travels’. He offered to rent cars on a monthly basis on behalf of his company, promising to pay a monthly rental of up to Rs 30,000 to car-providers.  

Lured by his offer, people from several districts including Salem, Thanjavur and Tiruchy handed over their cars to him. He was paying the monthly rentals for a few months and later avoided them. He did not return the cars to the owners either, even after they repeatedly asked him.

The dismayed car owners then submitted a petition to the Salem city police commissioner Mr. Shankar. Following an order by the commissioner, Asthampatti police inspector Kannan launched an investigation, and on Sunday, the team arrested Irfan who was hiding in Salem.

Enquiries with him revealed that he had pledged these rented cars with private finance

companies and borrowed several lakh rupees from them. Based on his

information, the team recovered 11 cars from

various finance companies in Salem, Thiruchengode and Erode districts. According to police, the travels guy duped people of nearly '20 lakh by pledging cars. Further investigation is on.