Youth pays Rs. 2.9 lakh for placement in Afghanistan only to be left stranded in Delhi

FAMILY FILES F.I.R AGAINST SILIGURI-BASED COMPANY, BUT UNCONVINCED THAT ANY ACTION WILL BE TAKEN
GANGTOK, 08 Dec: A case under section 406/ 402 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at the Pradhan Nagar Police Thana of Siliguri against a Siliguri-based company, Zingtang Consultancy and Services Pvt Ltd, by Rinchen Bhutia of Lingdum, East Sikkim.

In her FIR filed on 05 December, Ms Bhutia states that she paid a sum of Rs 2.90 lakh to the Director of the said company, one Dinku Khati of Gangtok, on 05 July 2011 for a job placement in Afghanistan for her son, Nima Tenzing Sherpa. The company had promised to send Nima on 24 Sept from Delhi to Afghanistan to a job as a security guard awaiting him there. This job would pay between U$ 1,000 to 1,200 per month.
Nima, however, never took off from Delhi, kept waiting there on one pretext or the other, leading a frustrated youth to return to Siliguri on 06 October, his money and patience running out.
The mother then met Ms Khati on 07 Oct wherein the latter communicated the company’s inability to send Nima to Afghanistan and promised to refund the deposited amount on 19 Nov. The two even signed an agreement attesting to this and this deadline was later pushed back to 05 Dec. However, on 05 Dec, Ms Khati allegedly refused to entertain their request for a refund anymore forcing the mother to file an FIR at the Pradhan Nagar Police Station.
According to Ms Bhutia, there were two other candidates along with her son - Prasanna Khawas and Ashok Shah both hailing from Darjeeling. This duo did fly out to Afghanistan, and as per the agreement signed between the three candidates and Ms. Khati [on the refund arrangement], reached Kabul on 24 October only to discover “everything was in vain and nobody came to receive them or provided any help or information regarding the job”.
The returned, obviously broke and desperate, and when they met up with Nima, decided to demand to have their money refunded – which totals Rs. 8.11 lakh.
An agreement was then signed between the company and the three candidates wherein the company agreed to return the total amount of Rs 8,11,000 deposited by the candidates by 19 Nov 2011. The agreement records Dinku Khati and AK Subba of Gangtok as representing Zingtang Consultancy and Services.
Speaking to NOW! Ms Bhutia expressed that even though the case has been registered, the accused have not been summoned to the police station even once. She further claims that there are others like her as well who are said to have paid up to Rs 4 lakh to the company only to be cheated.
When NOW! tried to contact the company on the numbers listed on the visiting card, both the numbers continuously responded to a switched off message.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the investigating officer at the Pradhan Nagar Police Station refused to divulge any details sharing only that he has visited the Zingtang office and spoken to Dinku Khati.