Unmesh Gujarathi
Sprouts Exclusive

Having a visa is mandatory while going on a foreign tour. The first thing to do when getting this visa is to make a submission. While making this submission, some travel companies intentionally included errors in it. And so the tourist cannot go on a tour. And under this pretext, not even a single penny is returned to him, numerous cases are currently happening in Mumbai. Therefore, the Sprouts’ Special Investigation Team has received shocking information that these companies are literally collecting crores of rupees.

 Neem Holidays Private Limited is a travel company. Manish Ramgopal Agarwal and Alka Manish Agarwal are both directors of this company. This company organized a Europe Tour. For this, Deendayal Murarka, an entrepreneur from Mumbai, paid Rs 4,90,000 on June 20. The package included Murarka’s daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. Of this, Rs 4 lakh was the tour cost for four people. The company had taken Rs 90,000 to get the visas sanctioned from the embassy, for these four people. According to the advertisement and commitment of the company, it was the responsibility of the company to issue the visa.

A submission has to be made while issuing a visa; some errors were deliberately made in this submission by the company officials beforehand. Therefore, Murarka and his family claimed that the visas of both the son-in-law and the daughter had not been passed, and the company grabbed all this money by giving this exact excuse. Reliable sources also claimed that many tourists like him have been duped.

Murarka rushed to the company’s office to refund the money but was abused by the use of filthy language and confined in one of the cabins in the office for half an hour with specific directions that unless Murarka dropped his claim for refund of the amount, Not only that, but Manish Agarwal also said that he would call the police van. Manish also tried to physically assault him, but Murarka managed to escape. And reached Vanrai Police Station, Goregaon. He immediately lodged a complaint with the police authorities.

No concrete action has yet been taken on this written complaint. Reliable sources have informed Sprouts that numerous tourists like Murarka were duped and have applied at the Vanrai Police Station. However, some tourists expressed their doubts while speaking to Sprouts’ on the condition of anonymity that no action is being taken due to the ‘financial’ relationship between the police officers and the director of ‘Neem’.

Murarka also met Additional Police Commissioner Rajiv Jain (IPS) but to no avail. Not only this, Murarka, through his lawyer Ashok Sarogi (Adv. Ashok Saraogi), has also sent a legal notice to Neem, but the company has not yet responded to this notice.

Manish Aggarwal, the infamous director of ‘Neem’, has already cheated countless tourists. Some tourists have shared such experiences on the Internet. Gurudutt Pai, a tourist from Worli, was similarly cheated, so he filed a complaint with the District Consumer Commission in Mumbai. On this, the commission also imposed a financial penalty on the directors, Manish and Alka Agarwal, on November 10, 2022.

The company ‘Neem’ provides front-page, full-page advertisements in newspapers like Times Group’s Navbharat Times and Mumbai Mirror. (These newspapers claim to be trustworthy but without any verification, they publish full-page advertisements of companies that deceive consumers.) Times, Express Groups’ ‘advertorial’ is the worst kind. This is a form of journalistic strangulation. Actually, this type of ‘paid news’ should be banned.

Newspapers like Mid-Day, and Navbharat even give them awards. (Many times these awards are given with monetary compensation, it is alleged. ) These awards are given by the Governor and ministers. The Governor’s house also became a hub for award function ceremonies. Thus, the customers are misled, and the directors of these companies are free to literally loot the customers.

Misleading the members of the Agarwal community

Neem’s brochure was first published by Sachin Agarwal and Alkesh Agarwal on behalf of the ‘Agroha Vikas Trust’, Central Committee, Mumbai (Agroha Vikas Trust). The photos of both of them were also published there.

Agrasen Maharaj’s photo was also published at the top of the advertisement. The tour was organized under the guidance of this forum. The leaflet was also taken out. However, after being cheated, Murarka repeatedly contacted Sachin Agarwal, but Sachin gave him vague answers, said Murarka while talking to ‘Sprouts’.

Did Agroha Trust actually obtain the permission of the Charity Commissioner while tying up with a disreputable company like Neem Holidays Pvt. Ltd. or jointly publishing the brochure? What right does this trust have to mislead the public in this way?

Not only this, senior social activist advocate Dilip Inkar also raised questions with ‘Sprouts’ about whether Sachin Agarwal is getting huge commissions from this infamous company. Inker presented with ‘Sprouts’. Manish Agarwal, Alka Agarwal, and Sachin Agarwal could not be contacted for a response in this regard.