Complaint filed to police by people who paid money to SBT Group, but could not go for Umrah

A complaint has been filed to the police by 34 people who could not go for Umrah after paying money to SBT Hajj and Umrah Group.

Police Media Official Hassan Haneef said that a complaint had been received today from 34 people who had paid money to SBT Hajj and Umrah Group but later could not contact SBT Group, and that this case was currently under investigation by the police.

One of the people who had been swindled by SBT Group told Sun Online on the condition of anonymity that the group was scheduled to leave for Umrah today, but they were contacted by SBT Group today and told that there was a problem with the aircraft and that the trip had therefore been delayed. SBT Group had told them that they will provide more information later, but it was no longer possible to contact them, he told Sun Online.

“They said that it was not possible to depart today because the aircraft had broken down. They said that they would contact us after 2:30 pm, but there has been no news up until now. So we contacted Sri Lankan Airlines, and found out that they had not paid for the tickets,” he said.

He said that each of the 34 people had paid MVR 20,000 to SBT Group, and showed Sun reporters the receipts and trip schedules obtained from SBT Group.

There is no answer on the phone of SBT Hajj and Umrah Group when Sun tried to contact them. It has also not yet been possible to get a comment of the Islamic Ministry regarding this matter.

Last year, head of Maleesha Hajj and Umrah Group Ismail Abdul Latheef was arrested for swindling 126 people out of over MVR 8 million by promising to take them for the Hajj Pilgrimage. The trial against Abdul Latheef is in progress.