Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Aug 28: A unique fraudster is giving sleepless nights to police as well as the people who have been cheated by him. The specialty of this crook is that he is not at all visible to the police. However, he is available to the gullible public on his website as well as mobile and WhatsApp also. He has an account on Facebook too! However, the police are not able to catch this crafty man. Even the attempt to catch him through the PMO has failed!
The name of the person, who has cheated countless people all over the country including Mangalureans, is Mariappan P. This high-tech fraudster takes money from people on the pretext of arranging sightseeing tours to places like Andaman, Lakshadweep, Mauritius etc but does not provide the actual service. He used to work earlier from his office named 'India Island Tourism' in Tirunelveli of Tamil Nadu. Now on his website, he has changed the location of his office as Andaman.
Rs 1, 36,250 not refunded
A family residing at Padil in the city had booked a five-day tour package to Lakshadweep through India Island Tourism Company on March 22, 2016. The period of the tour was mentioned as May 5 to 9, 2016 and boarding point was mentioned as Cochin. The total cost of the tour for 11 people was mentioned as Rs 2, 76,250. The family had paid the said amount in two instalments on March 22 and March 31, 2016. They had even booked the train ticket to travel from Mangaluru to Cochin and had made all the preparation for the tour.
On May 3, 2016, two days before the designated tour date, Mariappan called the family and told that there is some issue with the cruise liner and it has cancelled the proposed tour. He also said that he will return the advance payment of Rs 2, 76,250 made by the family. However, he did not return the money immediately. Only after repeated calls, Rs 1, 40,000 was returned by the fraudster after one and a half month. The rest amount of Rs 1, 36,250 is still not paid to the family even after two years.
When the family approached the rural police station to file a complaint on Mariappan, they were advised to register a complaint in this regard with the Consumers' Disputes Redressal Forum. Accordingly, the family had registered a complaint with the forum. The forum which listened to the dispute gave the verdict in favour of the family of Padil in the city on January 17, 2017 and ordered Mariappan to pay the pending amount of Rs 1, 36,250 paid by the family plus an amount of Rs 25,000 as compensation for the loss and Rs 5000 as the cost of the court.
The forum had issued a notice in this regard in English daily and had asked the fraudster Mariappan to appear before the forum. However, when the forum did not get any response from the accused, the forum took out an arrest warrant and couriered a copy of the order to the Tamil Nadu police. However, the police station officers of Vikramsingapuram police station of Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu returned the arrest warrant to the Dakshina Kannada Consumers' Dispute Redressal Forum on November 14, 2017 saying that the person named Mariappan does not live in the mentioned address in the arrest warrant.
Modus operandi of the trickster
As the name of the company, India Island Tourism suggests the tour package of Mariappan is mostly to Lakshadweep. He used to take the full amount of the tour in advance from the public. When there are two or three days remaining for the tour to start, he will call the customers and tell them that there is some issue in the cruise ship and the tour is cancelled and also used to assure that the amount will be returned. However, he never returned the amount to the customers and even if he returned, only 50% of the amount was sent to their bank account.
He used to operate from his only office in Tirunelveli two years ago. However, now it is learned that he has offices in Chennai and M S World also.
Complaint registered at PMO
The Mangalurean family which has not yet got back its due amount of Rs 1, 36,250 had sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) regarding the arrest warrant of Mariappan in April 2018. The PMO had directed through letters to the tourism officer of Tirunelveli and the administrative officer of Adayakarakulam village, where the said fraudster resides, to search for Mariappan and produce him before the court. However, it is learnt that both the officers have replied in negative to the PMO on August 2, 2018 saying that the said person is not available on the mentioned address.
Now the family from Padil is urging the authorities to provide them justice.