Two travel agents were Sunday booked after being accused by the families of two Kapurthala youths of being involved in a boat capsize off Central or South America, in which they said their sons had died. In his complaint to the police, Bachan Singh of Jaid Tehail village stated, “The two agents, Harbhajan Singh and Kulwinder, who had promised to take my son to the US for Rs 24 lakh, had killed him by drowning him in the sea.” Bachan Singh also said that the relatives of a “survivor” had told him that there were 20 other youths on the boat. Harbhajan has been arrested while Kulwinder is absconding. Harbhajan is reportedly a retired Haryana police constable and Kulwinder owns a petrol pump in Kapurthala. Bachan Singh told The Indian Express that he had heard about the boat capsize off the Colombia-Panama coast a few days ago, but Harbhajan and Kulwinder, who had taken Rs 10 lakh advance from him to send his 21-year-old son Gurwinder to the US, had no information. “Then someone told me that a survivor by the name Sonu of Laroi village in Jalandhar had called his family,” Bachan Singh said. Gurjeet’s father Balwinder Singh said that though there had been no official statement about any such tragedy, “a youth sailing with my son had given such a report and we are worried about our son. The government must tell us the reality by contacting the government there”. Bholath SHO Davinder Singh said he had got the complaint against the travel agents from Bachan Singh and Balwinder Singh. “The families informed us that their sons were perhaps drowned in the sea. We are investigating,” he said, adding that agents from Bhatnura Lubana and Nadali villages were involved in this.
