Bus owner dupes 40 migrants of Rs 1 lakh in Maharashtra

Around 40 migrants hailing from Bengal have moved the police accusing bus owner, including a bus driver, of duping them of Rs 1 lakh on the pretext of sending them home.

Aurangabad: As many as 40 migrants including men and women were allegedly cheated of Rs 1 lakh on Wednesday after a bus owner duped them by promising them that he will take the group to their places in West Bengal.

Each of the victims paid Rs 7,000 to the bus owner for the trip from Pune to Kolkata but the bus driver dropped them off in Aurangabad.

According to sources, the victims, mostly construction workers have boarded the bus from Pune. When the bus reached Aurangabad, the bus driver demanded money.

The workers told the bus driver that they had paid the money to the owner. Following this, the bus driver refused to take them to Kolkata and left them on the Aurangabad-Jalna highway. People who saw the migrants stranded on the road called up the Chikalthana police and they soon arrived at the spot, sources said.

On being learned about the incident, Assistant Inspector of Police Mahesh Andhale arranged for accommodation and meals of these labourers.

"The bus owner took Rs 7,000 per person from us and got a total of Rs 1 lakh as advance. The bus driver said he was allowed to ferry people home on the bus. Trusting him, we gave him money and boarded the bus from Pune. As soon as the bus reached Aurangabad, the driver demanded money from us on the Aurangabad-Jalna highway and left them in the middle of the road," a migrant worker said.

"Being out of work, the migrants were going back and were duped. We have contacted the bus owner in Pune and he has promised to deposit some money in the account of the labourers. The bus owner said that he is unaware of the incident. The reason of the case is yet to be ascertained but now our responsibility is to ferry these migrants safely. The main cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained but now our responsibility is to ferry these migrants safely. We are conducting raids to nab the driver of the vehicle," said inspector, Mahesh Andhale.

Meanwhile, Chikalthana police have provided the group food and drinking water and trying to arrange transportation facilities for all these workers to reach their destination safely.