FIR against travel agency for editing SoU entry tickets

Surat: Police have registered an FIR against a Surat-based travel agency for allegedly tampering with the entry tickets of 23 tourists visiting the Statue of Unity located at Kevadia in order to overcharge them, officials said on Saturday.

The fraud came to light on Friday when staff deployed at the entry gate at the world’s tallest statue thoroughly checked the tickets of the tourists, police said.

A Kevadia police station official said that the travel agency had edited the tickets of 19 adult visitors to increase the price of each ticket by Rs50. Similarly, the prices on the tickets of four children were raised by Rs20 each.

“The ticket of an adult tourist was shown to cost Rs430 even as the actual price is Rs380, while that of a child was raised to Rs250 when its official price is Rs230.

The agency tampered with the original documents and used them for entry to the Statue of Unity premises,” he said.
It was found that this was allegedly done by My Value Trip travel agency, he said.

Deputy mamlatdar Satish Prajapati lodged a complaint against the agency, on the basis of which an FIR was registered at Kevadia police station on Friday night, the official said.

The case was registered against the travel agency under IPC sections 465 (forgery) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any document or electronic record), and under section 60-D of the Information Technology Act for cheating by personation using computer resources, the police official said.

“During the scrutiny, it was found that the price of each ticket for an adult was raised by Rs 50 to Rs 430, and that of a child by Rs 20 to Rs 250 through editing,” the official said.